Gay marriage is a question of love.

Well said.

Obama’s Speech

John McCain on Attack Ads

Well said, Senator. Your abstinence from running attack ads against your opponent during this election season has been an inspiration to us all.

via [MikeMonteiro.com]

Our National Shame

People can do unspeakable things when they believe they won’t be held accountable for their actions. Civilians do it. Soldiers do it. Presidents do it. The difference with Presidents is that they have the power to cover up and pardon their own crimes. They don’t have to hope they won’t be caught. They can sign their own immunity into law.

1. Assert that we must abandon our sense of decency if necessary to put the screws to the bad guys.
2. Tacitly approve of torture while maintaining enough plausible deniability to keep oneself out of war crimes court.
3. When the truth comes out, throw your loyal subordinates under the bus to leave them to feel the disgrace that you deserve.

Taxi to the Dark Side is a documentary about detainee abuse and murder at the hands of American soldiers: how it started; how it was allowed to continue; and its consequences for detainees, soldiers, officers, members of the Bush administration, and the perception of America to the rest of the world.

This is what our fear and jingoism have wrought. Human beings deserve better than this sort of treatment, and we as Americans deserve better than leaders who tell us that this is acceptable.

Please watch this film.

Sarah Palin in 30 Seconds

She has nothing of substance to say and does a pretty poor job saying it. Ladies and gentlemen, a potential President of the United States:

Sarah Palin: an unqualified, inarticulate, superstitious, hypocritical marionette of the right wing.

Students’ and Renters’ Votes Shouldn’t Be Counted?

Republican Wisconsin Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen is suing the Government Accountability Board to check all voter registrations back to Jan. 2006. A discrepancy that would make a voter appear ineligible to vote is mentioned in this Isthmus article: a difference in addresses between the voter registration and the DOT database.

The address on my driver’s license (renewed every, what, 7 years?) isn’t current. It has changed at least 3 or 4 times since I registered with the DOT. So I suppose I could expect to have my vote thrown out with no warning if I don’t go down to the DMV and update it. Is my vote “fraudulent” because of this mismatch?

What about students and other renters that move every year? Is it likely that their DOT address record matches their voter registration?

How do you wipe out large numbers of votes from young people and those that aren’t wealthy enough to own a home? Van Hollen knows.

Van Hollen is also the co-chair of McCain’s campaign in Wisconsin. Do you see a conflict of interest?

EDIT: Go to Voter Public Access to check your voter registration status.

National Priorities

Using the figures from Death and Taxes I calculated that over the last month I personally contributed over $100 to the Global War on Terror. Over the same period about $36 went to the Department of Education.

The federal budget for 2009 is $1182 billion. $189 billion (16%) of that goes to the GWOT. $59 billion (5%) goes to Education. How much did you pay for each this month?

The Difference Between Obama and McCain’s Tax Proposals

This graph shows how each candidate plans to distribute his bribes if elected.

[Washington Post via gruber]

Do we need all these nukes?

This video gives you an idea of just how large and expensive our nuclear arsenal is. How could we possibly need all of these nuclear warheads? Is it just to keep money flowing to the companies that build and maintain them?

The Nanking Massacre

I watching Nanking today — a documentary about the Japanese siege and occupation of the then-capital of China, Nanking, during World War II. Despite being a horrific example of war crimes committed during the 20th century, I don’t recall ever hearing anything about the Nanking Massacre in school.

Over 200,000 Chinese civilians were killed during the first 6 weeks of the Japanese occupation. Over 20,000 cases of rapes were reported.

The documentary includes readings by Western actors of the diaries of Westerners that stayed in Nanking and tried to shelter Chinese civilians from the onslaught of the Japanese soldiers that were indiscriminately raping and executing them. These readings are interspersed with eyewitness accounts from Chinese civilians and soldiers as well as Japanese soldiers.

This is what can happen if it becomes acceptable to think of other people as being less than human, whether on nationalistic, religious, ethnic, or racial grounds. This is the danger of uncritically accepting divisive propaganda.

The trailer for the film: