Tag: Rights

Rights As A Weapon

The First amendment….the 2nd amendment….seem to the two most cited….probably because those are the only ones that mean anything to most Americans.

It always amuses me when in-bred dumbass stump jumpers start complaining about their rights…..when it comes to their incitement rhetoric or their right to pray to a shopping cart and especially when it is their right to own a 1000 weapons designed for combat…..and now it is their right to infect others with a disease because they do not like the precautions.

Where does all this stupidity end?

Best answer is no time soon….thanx to the lies and bullshit on social media….

I read a article about a book that touches on the situation of rights used as a weapon….

Human rights are generally thought of as defensive in nature. That is, they are held up by certain individuals and groups as a means to protect their dignity from the state or other malevolent actors. Moreover, rights are often viewed as either philosophically grounded in principles of human dignity and/or religiously endowed by a creator. Even absent a philosophical or religious grounding, rights are often regarded as legal concepts and taken as inviolate. These views of human rights treat them as generally positive and used by oppressed groups for liberal ends. In Rights as Weapons: Instruments of Conflict, Tools of Power, Clifford Bob cuts against the hagiography of human rights, and rights in general, to focus on the fundamental political nature of rights and how they are often used strategically, aggressively, and even for “illiberal ends”.

…

Rights as mobilizers. As Bob notes rights are particularly potent motivators of political action. He lists five reasons for this: 1) because rights are perceived as natural in that they have deep roots, 2) rights are also perceived as universal applying across space and time, 3) rights are perceived as absolute in that they are inviolate and can trump other political issues, 4) rights are perceived as apolitical putting them above other petty political squabbles, and finally, 5) rights are violated by one’s foes.

Review – Rights as Weapons: Instruments of Conflict, Tools of Power

Thoughts?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Who Is Weaponizing Religious Liberty?

Nothing I like better than a bunch of babbling buffoons that want religion to be part of politics……makes sure that real problems are ignored.

Back in the days, many years ago, it was a joy to be part of the political process….but then we got all these semi-literate d/bags on the Right….let me be more specific….the Religious Right…..that turn the whole process into some sort of religious litmus test and started chipping away at the very rights that we all say we love…..

Now it is just a menage of BS after BS…..if it is not abortion then it is prayer or the whole Christian nation thing…..I would love to punch holes in this bullsh*t but I do not feel the urge to bad mouth otherwise spiritual people……

In more recent years these “people” have turned our religious liberty into some sort of weapon….aimed at the very heart of this republic…..

It takes a right-wing village to turn a cherished American principle into a destructive culture-war weapon.

In 2016, for the second year in a row, more than 100 anti-equality bills targeting LGBT people were introduced in state legislatures, many of them described as measures to protect religious liberty. This flood of anti-LGBT and “religious liberty” legislation is not the result of isolated local efforts. It is part of a larger campaign by Religious Right groups to resist and reverse advances toward equality for LGBT Americans by portraying equality as inherently incompatible with religious freedom. That effort began well before the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2015 marriage equality ruling, but it has kicked into overdrive since.

Religious Right organizations have long equated criticism with persecution, and portrayed legal and political defeats as attacks on Christianity and religious freedom. Efforts to frame opposition to reproductive choice and LGBT equality as religious liberty issues picked up steam with the issuing of the Manhattan Declaration in 2009. This manifesto, co-authored by right-wing Catholic intellectual Robert George, pledged that its signers would refuse to “bend” to “any rule purporting to force us to bless immoral sexual partnerships, treat them as marriages or the equivalent, or refrain from proclaiming the truth, as we know it, about morality and immorality and marriage and the family.” Since then, Religious Right groups, their allies at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, and allied politicians have increasingly framed their opposition to marriage equality, nondiscrimination laws, reproductive choice, and the contraception coverage requirement under the Affordable Care Act as questions of religious liberty.

Source: Who Is Weaponizing Religious Liberty? | People For the American Way

There are so many that are concerned about the appearance of Sharia law but do not see where there is little difference in Sharia and the extremism that they want us all to follow….

At what point do we return to the ideals of Jefferson, Adams and Paine?  The separation of church and state…..would be a good place to start.

Detention Without Representation

WE have heard this person or that person compared to Marxists, socialists and even the biggest prick of all, Stalin….but you know there seems to be a movement that smacks a bit like Stalin and his gulags and that is in the country that “democracy” so loves……

Yesterday I wrote about the new cybersecurity bill that has all the earmarks of Big Brother deciding what you can say, read or associate with in the future…..and as the year draws to an end there is more really disturbing news that we as Americans really need to keep our eyes on….

The Congress has passed a bill that will make free speech, right to association and the right to privacy will be things of the past….all it will take is one abusive SOB, and Washington is full of them, to decide who is and who is not a “terrorist”….do you want them to have that power?  I do not…they abused it unmercifully with COINTELPRO and now you are giving them even more power…….

The US Senate’s approval Thursday of legislation allowing the indefinite military detention of US citizens without charges or trials marks a new stage in a decade of uninterrupted assault on the most fundamental democratic and constitutional rights.

The Senate’s 86-to-13 vote in favor of the legislation followed its approval in the House of Representatives Wednesday. It also came after the announcement by the White House that President Barack Obama would not exercise his power to veto the measure, which is included in the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), a $662 billion package to fund Washington’s war machine.

The bill mandates that anyone accused of being a terrorist be “detained without trial until the end of hostilities” in a military prison. While it requires such treatment for non-citizens, it authorizes it for citizens arrested on US soil, if the president decides they merit this extra-constitutional punishment.

This piece of legislation enshrines in law the worst of the crimes carried out under the Bush administration and provides legal sanction for an American military-police state. The sweeping bipartisan support it received in both houses of Congress has provided definitive proof that there exists no constituency for the defense of democratic rights within the American political establishment and its two big business parties.

For that matter, the passage of a law that shreds the founding principles of the American republic has raised barely a murmur of concern from the corporate-controlled mass media. They have no intention of making this a matter of public debate. For millions of American working people, however, the action is of the gravest importance.

The Senate’s vote came precisely 220 years to the day after the passage of the Bill of Rights, the first ten amendments to the US Constitution, on December 15, 1791.

This could have made Stalin proud….This just sucks!

I like my rights, do you?  Then for God sake speak up before it is too late!  We Americans are notorious for sticking our heads in the sand until it is too late….this time with our butts exposed we WILL be humped and humped HARD!

Right Of Expression

I recently read a piece written by Dr. William A. Cook……..first, it talks about the new laws enacted by Israel’s Knesset…..

The flood of anti-democratic laws that were proposed, and partially implemented, by the current Knesset, elected in February 2009, constitute one of the darkest chapters in Israeli history. The opening salvo was provided by Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman’s Yisrael Beiteinu party with its Nakba law, that forbids the public commemoration of the expulsion of approximately 750,000 Palestinians during the 1948 war.

Since then, a growing number of attempts were made to curtail freedom of expression and to make life for human rights groups more difficult. The latest instance is the boycott law that (is) was passed (this) last Monday by the Knesset, even though its legal advisor believes it to be a problematic infringement on freedom of speech.

What stands behind this frenzy of attempts to shut down criticism? The answer, I believe, is fear, stupidity, confusion – and now also a power-trip.

The result of Netanyahu’s and Lieberman’s systematic fanning of Israelis’ existential fears is tangible: polls show that Israelis are deeply pessimistic about peace; they largely do not trust Palestinians, and in the younger generation belief in democratic values is being eroded.

But this pessimism and siege-mentality is not only to be found in ordinary Israeli voters, but also in the political class … They have profound misconceptions about the Free World’s attitude towards Israel, and very little real understanding of the paradigm shift towards human rights as the core language of international discourse. They buy into Netanyahu’s adage that Israel’s existence is being delegitimised, rather than realising that Israel’s settlement policy is unacceptable politically and morally to the whole world.

And then he went on to compare, if you will, Israel and the US….and he offers a dire warning……

What both Israelis and Americans must realise, as these anti-democratic actions by both nations attest, is that democracy in both nations has been subverted in favour of those who command our representatives to actions that betray the essence of democracy and the will of the people. Democracy has been turned over to those who undermine the moral foundations on which it was built: equality for all, justice for all, dignity and respect for all; with government serving the people, not a corporate board. When the representatives of the state determine what people must accept, what they can and cannot do or say; when the power of two nations subverts the will and actions of all other nations, then democracy is dead.

He is not saying that bloggers like myself have been saying for years now…….the Congress is dysfunctional…..rights are being locked in a closet……and the people cannot get past the 2 party system…..sorry to say….but all those are indicators that democracy is in trouble and unless reversed could spell the end……..  (cue Doors song here)…….

The Manning Saga

From the VOMITORIUM

Anyone with a TV or a radio has got to know who Bradley Manning is ans what he is accused of doing……OK, just in case….he is the Army private that is in the brig for giving emails to wikileaks….I will approach this from a rights direction….I am NOT really talking about his legal status…whether he is guilty or innocent of the charges……

Glen Greenwald writing for Salon.com…….

From the beginning of his detention, Manning has been held in intensive solitary confinement.  For 23 out of 24 hours every day — for seven straight months and counting — he sits completely alone in his cell.  Even inside his cell, his activities are heavily restricted; he’s barred even from exercising and is under constant surveillance to enforce those restrictions.  For reasons that appear completely punitive, he’s being denied many of the most basic attributes of civilized imprisonment, including even a pillow or sheets for his bed (he is not and never has been on suicide watch).  For the one hour per day when he is freed from this isolation, he is barred from accessing any news or current events programs.  Lt. Villiard protested that the conditions are not “like jail movies where someone gets thrown into the hole,” but confirmed that he is in solitary confinement, entirely alone in his cell except for the one hour per day he is taken out.

And now Manning is being made to remain naked for most of his time in his cell…..stands inspection naked….sleeps naked….everything is in the nude…….Greenwald has made a good description of what Manning is going through………

Manning has been subjected for many months without pause to inhumane, personality-erasing, soul-destroying, insanity-inducing conditions of isolation similar to those perfected at America’s Supermax prison in Florence, Colorado….

These tortures are preformed on an American citizen that has NOT been convicted of anything at all…..would you conservs allow this to go unchallenged if it was an American held in some obscure little country?  Of course, you would not…..but then when have conservs either been champions of human rights?

This cruel and unusual punishment….I do not care if he was in the Army or a janitor at a grade school….wrong is wrong!  His legal status has nothing to do with whether this is right or not….it is wrong…and if you feel it is not then I say try and then tell me about your feelings…..

What Is Desecration?

I recall the days of yore when burning draft cards and flags was desecration….and then it was somehow alright to take the American flag and turn it into bandannas or head bands or underwear or t-shirts or…..on and on…..but the one thing that held strong was…it was NOT somehow okay to burn the American flag…….

My thoughts on the subject range from super liberal to a bit conservative…….on the one hand it is a piece of cloth with a couple of bright colors….and it is the symbol of our country…..but should it be protected?  If the answer is yes….then ALL items that depict the flag in an unflattering light should also be banned…and that includes those damn silly magnets, underwear, caps, hats, head bands and on and on…….

If that is not possible, then burning is an acceptable way of treating the flag…after all when an American flag is to be officially destroyed…how is it done…..BINGO!  They burn it.

Attorney Knustler in his argument in the Johnson v Texas, the case of of flag desecration closed with:

“And I understand that this flag has serious important meanings…that it has real meaning to real people out there. But that does not mean that it may have different meanings to other people out there and that they may not under the First Amendment show their feelings by what Texas calls desecration of a venerated object. I think it’s a most important case. I sense it goes to the heart of the First Amendment, to hear things or to see things that we hate tests the First Amendment more than seeing or hearing things that we like. It wasn’t designed for things we like. They never needed a First Amendment.”

Supreme Court Justice Kennedy said back in 1989:

“The hard fact is that sometimes we must make decisions we do not like. We make them because they are right, right in the sense that the law and the Constitution, as we see them, compel the result. And so great is our commitment to the process that, except in the rare case, we do not pause to express distaste for the result, perhaps for fear of undermining a valued principle that dictates the decision. This is one of those rare cases.”

There you have it…..knowing that not all Americans will agree with the ruling….but SCOTUS has spoken…….

And then there are those that yell the loudest about the desecration of the flag….like one Sarah Palin….but she does not know what she speaks of anyway……thanx to the site Newser:

Sarah Palin appears to have desecrated Old Glory at a Tea Party Express rally in Reno. Video from the event shows Palin signing a flag handed to her by a fan, thereby violating a section of the US Flag Code that states the flag “should never have placed upon it, nor on any part of it, nor attached to it any mark, insignia, letter, word, figure, design, picture, or drawing of any nature,” notes Salon.
Despite her party’s tough stance against messing with the Stars and Stripes, Palin’s Old Glory “desecration” won’t likely ever be punished, even if she placed herself under citizen’s arrest, the Guardian notes. Another section of the code states that “the flag should never be used for advertising purposes in any manner whatsoever” or be “printed or otherwise impressed on paper napkin or boxes or anything that is designed for temporary use and discard.” (Click here for Palin’s last flag-related snafu.)

Funny how all that works, huh?

Big Brother IS Watching!

A lot of people have used that term from the book “1984”….it has been used to categorize a lot of stuff the government is doing and how it could effect the people……the Patriot Act comes to mind….there has been a lot of things that have been predicted as Big Brother sticking his nose into ordinary people’s lives….and then there is France……

The lower house of the French parliament has approved a draft bill that will allow the state unprecedented control over the Internet. Although the government says it will improve security for ordinary citizens, civil rights activists are warning of a “new level” of censorship and surveillance.

For members of the French administration, it is a law against digital crime. For civil rights activists and politicians from opposition parties, it is a plan for censorship that excites fear and loathing — and even conjures up the specter of Big Brother and the surveillance state.

The new legislation could in the future force Internet service providers (ISPs) to shut off access to criminal sites, should they be officially instructed to do so. According to the draft legislation, the law “makes it the responsibility of each Internet service provider to ensure that users don’t have access to unsuitable content.”

Now that brings in the question….who will decide what is “unsuitable content”?  This is akin to someone decide which books I am allowed to read….my mother did not do it: government definitely does not have that right…..

I bring this to everyone’s attention because if it succeeds in France it will be coming to a country near you!  Today the French, tomorrow YOU!  Then BIG BROTHER will have his way and you will have your “security”……..While you were sleeping you have been losing your rights slowly but slowly…..Happy Now?

Nader On Workers Rights

The rights of workers have been on the decline. It is time to reverse that trend and begin to give workers, the backbone of the US economy, the rights they deserve. Workers need a living wage not a minimum wage; access to health care and no unilateral reductions in medical benefits and pensions for current employees and retirees. Employers should not be able to avoid these benefits by hiring temporary workers or independent contractors. The privacy of employees needs to be vigorously protected. The notorious Taft-Hartley Act that makes it extremely difficult for employees to organize unions needs to be repealed. It has resulted in less than 10% of the private workforce being unionized, the lowest in 60 years and the lowest percentage in the western world. Non-union workers need upgraded rights against the likes of Wal-Mart.

If you have any thoughts please let me know.