Thoughts on Israel

Israel is one of those foreign debacles that makes me just ask “why?”. I have no clue why the U.S. cares so much about a country smaller than most of our States that is totally capable of taking care of it’s self. Indeed I often thought that U.S. involvement in this region causes more problems than anything else. I mean we turn our backs on most of Africa, the Balkans, South America, and so forth…but even suggesting the U.S. let the Israelis solve their own problems will get you ostracized.

Why is that? Is the Israeli lobby in this country really that good? They must employ the same group that lobby for the Cubans in Florida or something. How did it come to pass that we treat this foreign nation like it were a part of our country?

We armed and continue to arm them, train with them, do joint intelligence with them, run interference with their neighbors so they don’t really have to talk to them, vote their way in every international conference including the UN…it’s really very insane when you consider our relations with other allies. Do we go to bat like this for England?..Australia?..Canada?..Japan?..I think you get the point.

Most people respond with the ethnic side of the equation when confronted with these very legitimate questions. It certainly can’t be ignored, but at the same time how far should we allow it to carry water here in the U.S.? I get it that a lot of pro-Israel Jews here in this country donate lots of money to politicians to insure that Israel remains at the top of the agenda, but is that really ethnicity talking or just money? If ethnicity was that central to our reasoning why didn’t we work with Serbia sooner to stop the blight there, and what about Darfur? These are ethnic cleansing happening now, not 60+ years ago.

What about Darfur and other humanitarian crisis’s? Some countries want to get involved and some don’t. In many cases the U.S. has little to no interest in these issues and like most countries thats their right be it ethically sound or not. But Israel…I would expect them to be all over the fight for injustice when race, or religion is involved since that kind of persecution is so close to home and often comes up in conversations surrounding Israel.

I was rather shocked to learn that Israel had less involvement in the Serbian crisis than us. I was even more shocked to learn how they are treating refugees from Darfur a people that have under gone a similar journey that the founding families of Israel underwent all those centuries ago and certainly know what its like to be brutalized by an evil regime.

I am mad at my own country for having no compassion and not putting enough political pressure on real problems in the world…how can I not be mad at Israel for failing to learn from its own past?…and why should I want my country to support them so much? They certainly have the right to protect themselves, and I do think we should be allies. That said I really don’t see the point of our special relationship.

Third Party Rant

I received a comment I just had to respond to in a separate post. It goes like this and is in response to my “Why Do People Think I Care about The Primaries” post in which I talked about my Libertarian Party alliance.

“A Libertarian may be able to vote for local candidates and may occasionally have a vote in congress but by not supporting a main party you will basically be throwing your votes to the wind and in some cases like one I remember a few years back, a third party can help get a lousy candidate elected by splitting the vote. Do we really want that to happen again? Research the candidates. We all have an opinion and the right to support the candidate we feel is best but please before you make a decision do research on every candidate and look at them at all angles. Do not just trust main stream news media to pick your candidate or give you all of the information. We have a problem with fighting among congress right now. We need to elect a candidate that is most likely to bring the parties together and get congress working together.”

 

I can’t even begin to describe how totally illogical these kind of comments really are. If it were true that by some divine right we could only have two major parties our country would look a lot different today.

First we would still be choosing between the Federalist and the Anti-Federalist, and none of our modern parties would have ever existed….because they used to be a third party at one point or another. The list of successful “alternative” parties goes on and on! There were the Wigs and the Democratic/Republicans both of which held the presidency on more then one occasion. Even those parties/groups that failed to take the government had enough power to change the course of this country. Groups like the Anti-Masonic, Progressive, Temperance Movement, Civil rights, and of course the Reformists of the 1990’s… all made a huge impact on how this country has evolved. Some even forced the “main stream” parties to drastically change their stance to remain relevant. Indeed without third parties our major political realignments would have never happened.

Third Parties being popular are a giant red flag that the main parties have failed their people. They show discontent and anger. Sometimes like in the years of the Great Depression the main parties listen and they make changes, don’t forget that the idea of Democrats being liberal is less then 80 years old. Also sometimes the discontent makes a multitude of third parties that coalesce into a single new entity, Thats how we got the GOP less then 150 years ago or so. The GOP is “The Party of Lincoln” and started out as a liberal party that housed discontents from all over the the political map, but most of its power came from the several third parties and party remnants that it absorbed.

So now we come back to this comment. First and fore most I am not “throwing my vote to the wind”, I’m sending a message. I want the main parties to fall on their face, I want people like Bush to get elected so they can show how backward our political system really is, and most of all I WANT THEIR TO BE A SPOILER because I don’t want either “side” in power. Honestly does anyone really think Al Gore or John Kerry are less incompetent then Bush? I am not going to vote out of fear of who might win, but rather vote my conscience and know that I stayed true to myself. Most Americans lack the moral fiber to make the distinction, and it would make the founders sick.

Now, as far as I’m concerned there are really only two reasons someone makes the “spoiler” or “split vote” comment:

1. It’s a tactic by a main party loyalist to scare people into voting for their substandard candidate, it’s intentional, and in the case of Ralph Nader it worked. But no one that jumped ship on Nader thought twice about how they were being manipulated by the dim witted Al Gore camp because they needed votes due to the fact that he ran a horrible campaign, debated like and undergrad and a State College and not the Vice President, and of course made the fatal mistake of under estimating his opponent. Al Gore deserved to lose, and shame on the people that bought in to this tactic. Politics is a dark art and you have to be ready to stand your ground when spells like this one are cast.

2. The person saying it has no clue what they are talking about and is just repeating the programed responses that parents, the church, friends, coworkers, and of course the media ingrained into their head. For these people please wake up and think for yourself for once, or at least stop voting.

I actually have respect for the first group because being able to control peoples decisions with nothing more then rhetoric and your wits is just an amazing feet.

Finally the whole “Research the candidates. We all have an opinion and the right to support the candidate we feel is best but please before you make a decision do research on every candidate and look at them at all angles.” part of the comment I will say this:

Actually I have researched the candidates and because of my beliefs I am very disappointed, with the exception of Ron Paul. Now if Ron Paul by some miracle gets nominated I’ll vote for him, but I’m not jumping parties to make it happen. Further, I’m a Libertarian there fore no big government Democrat is ever going to get my vote. Democrats don’t even give voice to Libertarian issues, especially the ones running this cycle. As for the GOP my party EXISTS do to discontent within the GOP ranks. Back in the 70’s what we now call “Reagan Republicans” started courting the religious right and became took over the party. Along the way they abandoned the ideas of Small Government, States Rights, Individual Liberty, Low Taxes, and a Notion of non-interference in foreign governments….oh and they also used followed the Constitution. Sure they still talk about these things, but they do something much different once they are in office. Really Ron Paul (a Former Libertarian that was our party nominee in 198 is the last throws of real conservatism left in the GOP, a party now populated by Bible Thumping Freaks, Neo-cons, and Fascists. Thats why I think It’s time to let someone new try their hand, sticking with the status quo only guarantees failure.

Why America is in Decay, A Call for Leadership

I know, its a terrible thing to say but in many ways it’s true. That said I’m not all doom and gloom, I do believe the trend is reversible. Three thing always mark the beginning of the end for a society: 1) Lack of investment in the core infrastructure 2) Stagnation of ideas resulting is a lack of social evolution, and 3) Expanding territorial influence beyond that which the state can logically control. Folks, the good ole U.S of A has all three. Lets go item by item shall we?.

1) Lack of investment in the core infrastructure:

This is an easy one: look at Katrina, the water shortage in the South East, Road quality in the North East, the energy crisis in the West, and lets not forget the debacle that is our boarders. Oh ya and of course the big one: 9/11. 9/11 illustrated perfectly our total incompetence and highlighted a total lack of infrastructural steam lining at every level; even the private sector. There is hope as we have had a Top Down Review and the 9/11 Commission Report as a road map….but with our ridiculous national debt we are going to be very limited with our response for years to come. It’s not impossible, but its also not a good outlook. Thats just the major stuff, there is plenty more where that came from.

2) Stagnation of ideas resulting is a lack of social evolution.

Every wonder why people look back to the 50’s and 60’s so much? Could it be that nothing even remotely as original has happened since? I think a really good argument could be made of that, indeed many of our “movements” today are simply hang-overs from that time period. Do to this lacking in the social department its no wonder support for the arts is at an all time low, and has been since the 70’s. In order to have a healthy society you need a powerful and progressive culture, something I haven’t seen in my life time. Sad but true.

Another element is our complete inability to make decisive, moderate, mature, and well balanced decisions on pretty much any issue of importance resulting in major problems continuing and getting worse over time while we sit on our hands. As a country we are of two minds on everything, most of our major democratic decisions come down to a percent or two. This happened once before in the history of our country and we survived; but it came with a terrible price tag…it was called the Civil War. Really at the rate we are going only three outcomes are possible 1) One group is able to subvert the other without physical conflict, 2) One group subverts the other WITH physical conflict, or 3) As a nation we wake up and realize our “two sides” are both wrong, counter productive, and that we need to really look at what is plaguing our society and come up with real solutions. It really is true that the only good decision is the one no one totally likes. Society is about consensus not winning a see saw match.

3) Expanding territorial influence beyond that which the state can logically control.

Well lets see…Germany, Japan, South Korea, Poland, The Caribbean, Several Pacific Islands, Nigeria, Cuba, Jordan, Kuwait, and of course Iraq and Afghanistan. The Best part? Those are just the places I can think of off the top of my head, and doesnt include any of Rumsfeld’s “lily pad” bases.

Now some of these places are modern commitments and may also pose a legitimate security risk to us, but certainly not all of them. We are like the seal balancing 8 balls on its nose at once: If we don’t put some of the balls down intentionally they will all fall and it wont be pretty.

I wrote this to lead into my next post entitled “Third Party Rant” (Which is on the way), which is my response to a comment I received on my “Why Do People Think I Care About the Primaries?” post.

Wow! SNL was Awesome Last Night

I normally refrain from writing about entertainment topics, but after seeing SNL last night i just had to make an exception.

Alec Baldwin was on, which is no surprise because he always seems to be on there. That said his skit with Tony Bennett was priceless. However the highlight of the show was amazing: A duet with Tony Bennett and Christina Aguilera. The number had a bit of trouble, there seemed to be some issues with one of the instruments being out of sink and they had some trouble harmonizing at first. That said to see them on stage together was awesome and they did really well considering the different types of sound they have, and the fact that it was live with little rehearsing im sure. Anytime i see them do something together im always impressed.

Tony Bennett is one of my all time favorites, i can listen to his stuff all day and i cant think of a single song of his i dont like. Mean while ive always been a fan of Christina’s even back in her bubble-gum pop days. When my friends used to debate who was better Britney Spears or Christina there was absolutely no question in my mind, it was Christina because she had two things Brit totally lacked: Talent and Staying Power. Bubble-gum pop comes and goes but its the artist that have the foresight to grow up with the kids they started out with that last, shes one of those stars.

Speaking of stars! Was last nights edition some kind of special? I say this because there at the end during the curtain call stood Tony Bennett,Christina Aguilera, Alec Baldwin, Paul McCartney!,Steve Martin, and someone else that for the life of me i cant place right now. Man it would have been awesome to see McCartney out with Bennett and Aguilera!

Anyway, im sure parts of it are up all over the web; check em out!

Yay! Europe has Annexed Verizon!

Verizon is just one of those companies that i view as evil. They charge too much, dont back their products and they squeeze out the little guy to the detriment of customers. However, it would seem that Vodafone has begun to assert it’s self more in its partnership with Verizon over their jointly controlled cellular brand.

First they announce that they are opening their network, which is a huge step. For the first time Verizons customers will be able to buy phones directly from phone makers and avoid signing a contract of doom. Also this will open the door for more software and o/s choices on the various handsets. All of this variety will make for some major competition which will be good for customers as prices go down.

Then there was this weeks announcement that they are going to go with LTE for their 4g system instead of WiMax which would essentially allay Verizon with the current GSM crowd as LTE is the replacement for the GSM 3g technology.

What this basically means is that their will be several major carriers of the same type of network on every continent. With the same base technology carriers will have to offer better deals to customer s in order to set themselves apart.

These were great decisions but like i said i dont think they were Verizons but rather their partner Vodafone. I think they became even more wary of Verizons business model then customers. I wonder now that Verizon and their German partner will have betworks based on the same technology will one buy out the other? And what does this mean for T-mobile, and other U.S. incarnation of Vodafone.

Why Do People Think I Care About The Primaries?

So i keep getting these links and emails sent to me by friends and readers of this blog supporting candidates or talking about how a certain candidate is a long shot and not worth my time. Even better someone I know actually took the time to write a little blurb about each “electable” candidate and why I would like them. For the most part I don’t read most of this stuff, but I find it interesting that so many people think I care about a process that really doesn’t apply to me.

I’m all about tactics and most of my decisions are not based on beliefs but rather what I think is tactically sound. Do to my personal situation I have much more freedom to do whatever the heck I want politically.

One major reason that the primaries don’t mean anything to me is also something many Americans should consider before they get all riled up: Location. I live in the wonderful State of Vermont, or in other words a political black hole. Vermont has one of the latest primary dates and its not uncommon from some candidates to not even seek a nomination in my state because its too costly and the contest is usually decided by the time VT hits the polls. Indeed none of the 08 candidates have a formal campaign in my state. Obama has grassroots support, and Romney cast a big net in all of New England buts that’s about it. Basically take the importance and focus on my eastern neighbor New Hampshire; invert it and that’s about how important the VT primary is. Bottom line if you don’t live in a big state or one of the early states like Iowa, New Hampshire, or South Carolina don’t give your self an ulcer over the primaries.

Don’t get me wrong I like it that my state doesn’t matter, it allows me to be political on the fringes and not be pissed that major candidates water down the issues. This brings me to the second reason why the primaries don’t mean anything to me: I’m not a Democrat or a Republican, I’m a registered Libertarian…as in the Libertarian Party…which would bar me from taking part in any primary but my own parties. People in my social circle just don’t get that. I say Libertarian and everyone thinks im a Ron Paul supporter, which im not…because hes a Republican! I think people have a mental disorder that I like to call Third Party Psychosis. Which means they simply can’t wrap their minds around the idea of a third party and have to transfer the notion to something they can deal with.
Well at least the pamphlets have pretty colors and the emails give me something to read when im eternally bored. Maybe ill write a paper on the psychological effects of politics on the average person or something.