Saintless

I’m absolutely appalled that America is just standing by and watching as the children and parents of the FLDS are treated as criminals. Here’s what I know of the situation (please enlighten me on anything I might be missing):

• A woman calls in and lies about who she is, saying she’s being abused
• Texas “authorities” round up babies, toddlers, teens and mothers as if they were cattle
• Nursing babies are abused by those authorities by being separated from their mothers
• Toddlers are abused also, although at least they haven’t had their only chance at nursing ended
• The whole community is being paraded in the news as a circus spectacle

And then, they’re all subjected to DNA tests to figure out how the community fits together?

This is the worst violation of basic human rights that I can imagine our country coming up with, short of declaring these people to be “3/5 human”! If there are abuses going on, and I’m sure that there are, is the way to prevent this to round up hundreds of the victims themselves and subject them to massive human rights violations? I fully consider depriving the infants from their mother’s milk to be an aggressive act of abuse.

This is America. We sit in our warm, cozy houses thinking we have the perfect country, where our human rights are protected more than anywhere else in the world, and watch this debacle unfold on television, where it seems more like an HBO special happening to fictitious characters than something horrible happening to US citizens.

This is not right. And the most I’ve seen anyone suggest that I can do about it is sign an online petition sure to get ignored. I don’t want to sit on my hands about this. Yet, what else can I do? This is a sad day for Democracy.

Update 1: Well, if you think that the Houston Rockets basketball team are responsible for the FLDS mess, there’s another option. KSL reports that some are planning to protest the Jazz vs Rockets game, along with stalking the players at their hotel rooms. Brilliant!

Tags: FLDS

This is a really dumb idea. The House has approved a bill to repeal Utah’s Driver Privilege Card law.

Who in their right mind thinks that illegal immigrants are going to come here so that they’ll break fewer laws (i.e. they get a driver privilege card)?

How many murderers, terrorists, gang members and sex offenders come from the immigrant population? Seriously! And if these horrible members of society are going to break every other law, why would they go through the trouble of coming here just so they “can get the card and use it for illegal activity”?

It would be much better to have all these people driving around (which they will do anyway) without insurance? Nice. Really nice. I’m glad we have such intelligent people running things.

Idiots.

Tags: immigration, Utah Legislature

I received an email today about the upcoming Peace March and Rally, and thought I’d share. First is the information about the event, and at the bottom is the email about how you can help.

The Oct 27th site has this information about the rally:

BRING ALL THE TROOPS HOME NOW!

U.S. OUT OF IRAQ!

BUILD BRIDGES, NOT BOMBS!

Join Utah and other surrounding states including Idaho, Colorado, and Montana, in a major march and rally on Saturday October 27th, 2007 in Salt Lake City. The action starts at 11:00 AM at the Utah State Capital where an Iraq War Veteran will give the opening address for this day of action. We then march down the hill to the Federal Building where more activities and speeches are scheduled at 12 PM. The event culminates at Washington Square, 400 South State Street in Salt Lake City, where from 1 to 3 PM nationally recognized speakers will address the gathering.

We also plan to feature great music and many local/regional anti-war street performance groups and displays.

Questions, comments, suggestions? Want to be a part of this great local effort to end the war in Iraq and bring our troops home? Would you like to distribute flyers and posters for this event?

contact:

kimspangrude@mac.com

daynegoodwin@gmail.com

VOLUNTEER!

Planning meetings for this event are every other Tuesday evening at the Salt Lake Public Library, Main Branch, on 400 South and 200 East in SLC in the Conference Room on the first floor. Next meeting: October 2nd at 6:30 PM. RSVP if possible.

And here’s the flyer.

I’m not sure if I can go to this, or not. It’s early enough in the day that I probably can.

So, here’s the email about how you can help:

Dear friends and peace activists,

Saturday October 27 will be an important day of action to call for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq. United for Peace and Justice , the largest activist peace coalition in the U.S., is coordinating a nationwide demonstration against the war focussed in eleven cities around the country.

Salt Lake City is one of the eleven regional centers . The Idaho Peace Coalition and other peace groups and activists from throughout the intermountain region are coming to Utah to participate in the Mountain States regional action.

The Bush administration has asked Congress to pass another $192 Billion supplemental appropriation to fund the war. Congress will be acting on this request sometime after October. We are opposed to the appropriation of any more funds for the war and occupation of Iraq. Go here to get news on what’s happening in Congress and what you can do .

October 27 will be our opportunity to gather together in large numbers to publicly and visibly send a loud and clear message with great impact on the political system. In Salt Lake City we will gather on the west side of the State Capital starting at 11am for a 12noon march down the hill past the Federal Building for a 1pm rally at the City-County Building.

We the People for Peace and Justice, the broad _ad hoc_ coalition which came together to organize the large rally of 5,000 Utahns when President Bush was here August 30, 2006 is organizing Salt Lake’s October 27 demonstration. The overall budget for this ambitious protest will be about $6,000. So far we have raised about half this amount from individual donations and from group sponsorships.

We are asking organizations to join in sponsoring October 27 by making a minimum donation of $100. Already the Wasatch Coalition for Peace and Justice, Vietnam Veterans Against the War, Veterans for Peace, U.S. Labor Against the War, Utah Democratic Progressive Caucus, Military Families Speak Out, Mormons for Equality and Social Justice, Green Party of Utah, and the Campus Committee for Peace and Justice at the University of Utah have decided to become sponsors.

Would your organization(s) care to join these Utah groups and chapters of national organizations in sponsoring October 27? We need your political and financial support! Checks should be made out to “October 27 Committee” and can be sent to the address below. Individual donations are also welcome of course.

Get involved in the movement! The next October 27 organizing meeting is Tuesday evening October 16, starting at 6:30pm in the first floor conference room of the SLC downtown public library. Help spread the word, distribute leaflets and flyers, volunteer to help with the logistical work on October 27.

Thanks for your support for peace and justice,
Dayne Goodwin, Treasurer
for the Finance Committee,
We the People for Peace and Justice

Dayne Goodwin
275 L Street, #4
Salt Lake City, Utah 84103-3542
801-364-0667

Tags: anti-war march, peace, rally, United for Peace and Justice

According to KCPW, Utah is seeing an influx of Burmese refugees. I recently wrote about the problems going on in Burma right now, but most of these people have spent the last 10 years in refugee camps in Thailand or Malaysia.

These people have literally been stuck in the refugee camps for those 10 years. They had resettlement applications in, however as part of the process, they were asked if they had given food or anything else to certain organizations, which are considered terrorist groups by the US government, they answered that they had. Apparently, it didn’t matter that they gave these things over because of a gun pointed at their head. They were supporters of terrorism, which made them non-people, and ineligible for resettlement here in the states.

Ineligible until now, that is. They’ve had advocacy groups working for them, and they were finally able to get the applications expedited.

This is just one example that makes me believe that “getting involved” is not a waste of time. The advocacy groups did get involved, and eventually were able to make a difference for about 10,000 people. So, if you’re one of those people who sit around and bitch about how bad things are, but don’t really do anything (that was me 2 years ago), please reconsider. You can make a difference.

Tags: bureaucracy, Burma, refugees

I’ve read a lot of blogs today that have made me so mad that I couldn’t comment for fear I’d call them f*^%tards and not be able to help myself.

Here’s an example. Craig, of KVNU, diagrees with Huntsman’s actions, or lack thereof, so he brings up something totally unrelated:

This has me pretty aggravated. The Governor, who campaigned on vouchers, and signed them into law, is choosing to keep a low profile during the current debate.

He claims that it’s enough for him to state his support for vouchers when asked about it, and to personally vote for it in November. But as a voucher proponent, I say that’s not nearly enough. Since he campaigned on this issue, what he’s doing now, in abandoning vouchers in the 11th hour, amounts to breaking his campaign promise in my eyes.

It’s not as if he’s too busy to campaign for it. All he’s been doing recently is pushing his ridiculous “Lights Out” program and attending meetings on climate change, neither of which will have any effect on his constituents.

If he doesn’t want to come out and fight for the voucher program over the next month, then I see no reason why I should support him next November.

Ok, the last paragraph I can understand. Don’t vote for someone who doesn’t do things the way you want them to. That’s kinda why we vote, right? But he starts off complaining that Huntsman’s not doing enough on the voucher issue, and then implies that Huntsman is turning all liberal or something, and he’s spending so much time on climate change that he’s neglecting his duty to support vouchers. Ok, idiotic, yes. But what really got me is that Craig actually believes that “Lights Out” and climate change will have NO EFFECT on Huntsman’s constituents. Is that because the only people that count in this state are the ultra-right wing conservatives who think that climate change is a hoax? None of the rest of us (or logic) matters. I’m just so dumb-founded by this utterly ridiculous notion of some sort of supremacy granting these people special knowledge of things that contradict reality.

Then there’s the debate on Mathias’ blog. Apparently, there’s a group that wants to take care of a chimp but were told that the chimp’s guardians had to apply to court for that, but then were told that the chimp couldn’t have a guardian because it wasn’t a person. Very odd story about people trying to use strange loopholes in the law to get a problem resolved. However, Dave, in the comments somehow tied chimps into homosexuality, saying “Suddenly, all the slippery slope arguments about gay “marriage” aren’t sounding so silly after all.”

The conversation only got more confusing from there. I started to reply, pointing out that the root of Christianity and Islam is one and the same, and that it’s absurd to react the way some of the commenters on the blog did, but again, I just couldn’t post because I was a little irritated, a little bewildered, and mostly I don’t think my comments were going to change the attitudes of these people, so I gave up. I guess that was the most Christian thing I could do, because God never asked me to force reason and love on anyone else, He just asked me to show them. But it still makes me mad to see bigotry in the name of God.

The Utah blog-o-sphere seems to be full of IT today, but thankfully, several of my favorite bloggers wrote something worth reading.

Ok, venting done, I feel better.

Tags: Christianity, gay marriage, Govenor Jon Huntsman, Islam, vouchers

Sorry, Jeff. This isn’t the blog I told you I’d have, but it’s still on it’s way. In the meantime, I got this email from Diana Lee Hirschi today, and felt it was worth dragging myself away from work for a moment.

Greetings. Suggested political action courtesy France Barrel, Amnesty International:

“May we be free of torture, may there be peace in hearts and minds as our kindness spreads around the world.”

Protect the protesters

“May we be free of torture.” This was the chant of pro-democracy protesters in Burma (Myanmar) this past week. Yesterday, security forces began a violent crackdown on the protests, led by 30,000 red-robed monks.

The military government’s forces clubbed and tear-gassed protesters, fired shots into the air, and arrested dozens if not hundreds of monks. Several people were reportedly shot to death.
You can take action now to prevent more violence by the military government. Send a message today asking the UN Security Council to oppose this violent crackdown and do everything in their power to prevent further bloodshed.
When the people of Burma last staged mass pro-democracy protests back in 1988, the military junta murdered thousands. But history does not have to repeat itself.
Please take action today — and ask your friends and family to do the same. Together we can act now in solidarity with the brave people of Burma.

Thank you,
Larry Cox
Executive Director

The suggested action is to spend 2 seconds to click on the web page to send Bush a letter asking the UN Security Council to intervene. It’s not hard, please take a moment to do it. And if you want more info about what is happening, Google News has it all.

It’s depressing that things like this and Darfur are going on, yet Bush thinks it’s more important to fight over oil in Iraq.

[Update]
CNN is reporting that there may be satellite photos to prove the abuses that have been happening. Let’s not let this be the only thing done by a Bush to address the wrongs taking place there:

In a plea to Myanmar’s ruling military regime, Mrs. Bush said earlier this week, “I want to say to the armed guards and to the soldiers: Don’t fire on your people. Don’t fire on your neighbors.” Her remarks were in a Voice of America interview.

[Update 2]
Burma has now shut down the internet, according to another CNN article.

London-based blogger Ko Htike — who has been one of the most prominent bloggers posting information about the violence — has vowed to keep up the fight, saying where “there is a will, there is a way.”

“I sadly announce that the Burmese military junta has cut off the Internet connection throughout the country,” he said on his blog Friday. “I, therefore, would not be able to feed in pictures of the brutality by the brutal Burmese military junta.”

[...]

He told CNN.com a day earlier that he has as many as 40 people in Myanmar sending him photos or calling him with information. They often take the photos from windows from their homes, he said.

Myanmar’s military junta has forbidden such images, and anyone who sends them is risking their lives.

“If they get caught, you will never know their future. Maybe just disappear or maybe life in prison or maybe dead,” he told CNN.

Why would they take such risks?

“They thought that this is their duty for the country,” he said. “That’s why they are doing it. It’s like a mission.”

You don’t need to risk your life to help, but speak out – write Bush. And if you know any other action sites on this topic, please let me know in the comments.

Tags: Burma, freedom, George W Bush, UN Security Council

From Derek, of Brilliant at Breakfast:

Spit take-inducing headline of the day

Put down that cup of coffee, unless you like a mess. Courtesy of TPM Muckraker:

Gitmo to Stay Open as Human Rights Sanctuary

Turns out it’s more than just a catchy headline. The story is that the good ol’ Bush administration wants to slim down the prisoner headcount at Gitmo from the current 360 to 150. So good news for 210 wrongfully-imprisoned and even-more-wrongfully tortured detainees? Actually, no. We’ve still got one more level of wrongful to go: there’s nowhere to drop them off. Their home countries and all of the possible foster-home states that have been asked either won’t take them, or won’t take them without promising not to torture or kill them. So they get to stay in Guantánamo, where their human rights will be, uh, protected.

It only gets more absurd from there. Read on.

Tags: George W Bush, Guantanamo Bay, war crimes