Savo Heleta's Blog, page 11
June 24, 2009
"Beware America's Republican Mullahs"
Frank Schaeffer, one of the founders of the religious right in the United States and, as he says himself "former part of a Republican Party hate machine," wrote a very interesting article in the Huffington Post on June 20.
"As a former religious right leader I worked to make America 'safe' for 'Christian values' and dangerous to everyone else. Thankfully I, and those like me, failed."
"Had we succeeded," Schaeffer says, "America would be another version of Iran," our own version of "misbegotten th
Iran's Media Censorship Gone Bad
What's currently happening in Iran regarding the censorship of the international media should be a very important lesson to governments around the world.
That lesson is: Do not restrict media freedom and do not ban reporting by the international media!
The Iranian regime has banned the international media from covering protests, violence, and the crackdown on the opposition.
While the international media are probably biased in their reporting, they often do show the other side of the story.
Due to t
June 23, 2009
Barack Obama's "wait and see" policy on Iran
Barack Obama's careful "wait and see" policy on Iran is a correct one.
As the Economist writes, Obama's "priority is to prevent the Iranian regime from acquiring a nuclear bomb. His preferred method is to negotiate directly with Iran’s leaders. Since it is not clear who will end up in charge in Tehran, he is biding his time."
Also, if Obama and other Western leaders take sides and openly support the opposition, this would only help the regime in Tehran.
June 18, 2009
American Propaganda, Terrorism, and Jihad
The New York Times published a front-page story on May 21 claiming that 1 in 7 prisoners released from Guantanamo had returned to waging "jihad."
Quoting an unreleased Pentagon report, the NY Times wrote that many of the former Guantanamo detainees had "returned to terrorism or militant activity" as soon as they were released.
What exactly do the Pentagon and the New York Times mean by the "return to terrorism and militant activity"?
Among those who "returned to terrorism" are the "three English de
June 17, 2009
"Hold Bush officials accountable for torture"
In an op-ed published in Salon on June 17, Lt. Col. Darrel Vandeveld and Anthony Romero call for a special prosecutor for torture and abuse committed by the Bush administration.
"To date, the evidence that U.S. officials engaged in widespread and systemic torture and abuse of detainees with the authorization of the highest Bush administration officials comes from a wide range of sources. There are congressional reports, journalistic investigations, detainees’ own accounts, and even -- astonishing
CIA chief thinks Cheney wants US attacked
CIA director Leon Panetta thinks "it's almost as if former vice president Dick Cheney would like to see another attack on the United States to prove he is right in criticizing President Barack Obama for abandoning the 'harsh interrogation' of terrorism suspects."
"It's almost, a little bit, gallows politics. When you read behind it, it's almost as if he's wishing that this country would be attacked again, in order to make his point," said Panetta in an interview to The New Yorker magazine's June
June 11, 2009
Penalty for those who don't vote in elections?!
With voter turnout in the European elections held last weekend lower than ever, some German politicians are suggesting mandatory voting and fines for the apathetic voters in the future.
Across the 27-member European Union, just 42.9% of eligible voters cast their ballots in the recent elections.
This is the lowest turnout in Europe since 1979.
The low turnout has helped the center and far right extremist parties across Europe and these parties will have a significant presence and say in the Europea
June 10, 2009
Are Americans "the most evil people on earth?"
The United States, according to Webb, "with 5 percent of the world's population, houses nearly 25 percent of the world's prisoners."
"Either we're the most evil people on earth, or we're doing something wrong," says Webb.
He adds: "We incarcerate 756 inmates per 100,000 residents, nearly five times the world average. At this point, approximately one in every 31 adults in the United States is in prison, jail, or on supervised rele
Book Review - The Collapse of Globalism, by John Ralston Saul
The Collapse of Globalism and the Reinvention of the World is a must-read!
In this well researched and written book, John Ralston Saul summarizes the promise of globalization as follows:
- The power of the nation-state is waning;
- In the future, power will lie with global markets. Thus, economics, not politics and armies, will shape human events;
- These global markets, freed of narrow national interests and inhibiting regulations, will gradually establish international economic balances. Such mar
June 9, 2009
God as a Political Sidekick
Over the last few decades, God has reappeared around the world as a "political sidekick, ready to justify whatever is required."
This very accurate statement is from a book titled "The Collapse of Globalism and the Reinvention of the World" by John Ralston Saul.
Saul writes that, "God's fading participation in wars that drag on, such as in Northern Ireland, has been succeeded by star appearances in massacres all over Africa. He has been wandering the Afghan mountains with Taliban and Al Qaeda guer
