IlliniPundit hosted quite a back and forth this week on the War in Iraq. He asked a simple question, but couldn't get a simple answer. Turns out there are also some ex-Intel folk who post over there. Not surprisingly, they seem to have a favorable view about what is happening in the middle east.

So I was surprised to see this speech from Lawrence Wilkerson this week. Colonel Wilkerson is the former Chief of Staff to former Secretary of State Colin Powell. A man with decades of experience in the armed forces, and in the upper echelons of power, Wilkerson was harshly critical of the way the Bush Administration is running our country. Money quotes follow:

I would say that we have courted disaster, in Iraq, in North Korea, in Iran, generally with regard to domestic crises like Katrina, Rita and I could go on back, we haven't done very well on anything like that in a long time. And if something comes along that is truly serious, truly serious, something like a nuclear weapon going off in a major American city, or something like a major pandemic, you are going to see the ineptitude of this government in a way that will take you back to the Declaration of Independence. Read it some time again.

... the case that I saw for 4 plus years was a case that I have never seen in my studies of aberration, bastardizations, [UI], changes to the national security [UI] process. What I saw was a cabal between the Vice President of the United States, Richard Cheney, and the Secretary of Defense and [UI] on critical issues that made decisions that the bureaucracy did not know were being made.

And then when the bureaucracy was presented with those decisions and carried them out, it was presented in such a disjointed incredible way that the bureaucracy often didn't know what it was doing as it moved to carry them out.

Which is just totally unacceptable, in my opinion. As a teacher I have seen several former students suit up and take off to fight in this war. I have kids with parents stationed in Iraq. I honestly don't want to hear this.

But there is money to be made. Wilkerson continues:

God bless Eisenhower in 1961 in his farewell address the military industrial complex and don't you think they aren't ... today in a concentration of power that is just unparalleled. It all happened because of the end of the Cold War.

... tell you how many contractors who did billion dollars or so business with the Defense Department that we have in 1988 and how many do we have now. And they're always working together. If one of them is the lead on the satellite program, I hope there's some Lockheed and Grumman and others here today [UI] if one of them's a lead on satellites, the others are subs. And they've learned their lesson there in every state.

They've got every Congressman, every Senator, they got it covered. Now, it's not to say that they aren't smart businessmen. They are, and women. They are. But it's something we should be looking at, something we should be looking at. So you've got this collegiality there between the Secretary of Defense and the Vice President. And then you've got a President who is not versed in international relations. And not too much interested in them either.

There is money to be made. Lots of it. Blood for oil, blood for weapons, blood for profits. Even the folks on the inside are waking up.

Why can't Chomsky be wrong once in a while? Why does it always have to turn out this way.

Here's the video. 3 comments

The Tribune reports this morning that President Bush's polling numbers in Illinois are down to 33 percent. More surprisingly ...

Support for Bush has dropped 14 points in the last year among Republicans, and GOP officials fear that could complicate their efforts in next year's races for Congress and governor. For the first time in his presidency, half the voters in Chicago's Republican-rich collar counties disapprove of Bush's job performance, a departure from last fall when he carried all five suburban counties. ...

... In addition to Bush's low standing among voters in the collar counties of DuPage, Kane, Lake, McHenry and Will, 54 percent of voters Downstate now say they disapprove of his performance. Downstate voters generally are more conservative and have in the past been more supportive of Bush. But his disapproval rating among those voters has climbed 12 percentage points since May.

Majority disapproval of Bush in the suburbs and downstate is not good footing for Republicans aiming to take back state positions. It actually makes Jakobsson's forum on Social Security look like a wise political move. Keep the emphasis on misguided Republican policies, keep them making up irrational justifications for policies no one wants. It continues to expose the ignorance that lies behind so many Republican ideas.

All we have heard for years now is justification after justification for policies that don't make sense. Cut taxes for the rich? Why? Well, we don't understand - really it is helping poor people. Right. Attack Iraq? Why? They have WMD, they could have made WMD, we need a democracy in the Middle East. Right. etc. etc. etc...

It seems the country is finally waking up from these delusions. Unfortunately we have three more years of this foolishness in Washington. Luckily, we have statewide elections in about a year. 1 comments

A dear friend of mine is spending a year working for the people of Guatemala for the Presbyterian Church, USA. She has been in country for a little over a month as was gearing up for the move out to the country to work with a village. Unfortunately, a large hurricane hit Guatemala last week and has literally destroyed many of the villages where she was going to work. She writes:

With whole villages covered in mud from landslides without warning, the death toll is into the thousands. People´s homes have been filled with mud and water, destroying all of their belongings. Entire villages can´t be found under several feet of mud. The economic means of this country have been washed away with the fields of crops and business.

... the current problem now, besides the fact that people are digging their homes out of the earth, is that most of the highways leading to the affected communities are impassible making the passage of food and pure water near impossible. The crops of the rural communities have been destroyed and the water sources are gone. The people are starving. And drinking contaminated water.

... We visted a few communities yesterday and what we saw was horrible. These people haven´t eaten for several days and their houses are piles of mud. The families that are worst off are staying in community buildings but those who were deemed ¨bad enough¨ are still in their houses, receiving no help.

Our mission is clear: get food and water to these people. However, there are a few problems. Food is running out. Not running out here in Santo Domingo...running out everywhere in the country. We need help. We need money now for supplies and food (when we find some) and later because most Guatemalans don´t have insurance and aren´t going to get back anything that they lost. Most Guatemalans live day to day and without work for the last week, they can´t feed their families. I am putting some information at the bottom of this email about where to send funds through the Presbyterian Church. The money will come here, we will buy food and then give it to the communities so that they can divide up the rations as they see fit. We trust the churches in the communities to know more than we do about who needs what. These are churches that we have been in partnership with for years. So, if you are able, the people of this country need help. However, I do believe that the power of prayer supercedes all, so, please keep Guatemala in your prayers and pray that this country sees a quick recovery to what has been called the worse natural disaster Guatemala has ever seen.

If you are able to help in any way, please do. To send monetary donations it is extremely important that you send an email to Lindsey at herbybug317@yahoo.com and Marcia Towers at presgov@cabledx.tv to let them know how much you've sent, so that they can spend funds that they already have in PRESGOV even before your money is available. You can send a check in the name of PRESGOV to:

Lindsey De Pew
1050 S. Verdugo
Tucson, AZ 85745

Wire transfers are also available. Contact Lindsey or Marcia for more information.

Please pray for the people of Guatemala. 0 comments

I had a friend back in the bad-old-days who was apprehended selling LSD. He was the younger brother of a good friend of mine. A good looking white, suburban kid of privilege, he was not your typical drug dealer. I remember he brought a hell of a three-point shot to our pick up games on Sunday afternoon, and held down a couple of jobs during the week outside of school. I liked him a lot.

Unfortunately, he had made a connection with a dealer (probably through a Dead Show) and sold a couple of “hits” to a 16 year old at the high school. The 16 year old’s parents found the drugs and called the police. The police threatened this kid with serious punishment if he didn’t cooperate. So he called my friend and asked if he could buy three “sheets” (about 300 “hits”) of acid. My friend, seeing the profit in this exchange, did the deal. When he came to deliver the drugs the police arrested him.

He did seven years in prison.

He didn’t mean it.

His story was not unique. Almost everyone I grew up with was involved in drug use, many with LSD. Be shocked if you want, but I hear heroin is the big thing in the suburbs these days. Public school kids do it. Private school kids do more of it, since they have more money. It is just a matter of time and fate before another kid like my friend goes off to prison for selling drugs. A life ruined for a bad choice, because of bad policy

The Monday, October 3, 2005 New York Times includes a long, excellent article on young people who serve life sentences in this country. It turns out we are quite alone in our eagerness to put our young people behind bars for life. In fact …

Life without parole, the most severe form of life sentence, is theoretically available for juvenile criminals in about a dozen countries. But a report to be issued on Oct. 12 by Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International found juveniles serving such sentences in only three others. Israel has seven, South Africa has four and Tanzania has one.

By contrast, the report counted some 2,200 people in the United States serving life without parole for crimes they committed before turning 18. More than 350 of them were 15 or younger, according to the report.

As a teacher, and a recipient of a Masters of Educational Psychology I think I can speak with some authority about the decision-making skills of young people. They rarely have any. They often make decisions based on impulse and regret their decisions shortly after. They often don’t really mean to do what they do.

Politicians are always looking for an angle, something to set themselves apart from the pack, as it were. It has long been considered political suicide in this country to be “soft on crime”. While this phrase is essentially meaningless, thousands of politicians have picked up the mantle of “tough on crime” and campaigned on the promise to reform the “lenient” penalties that some criminals receive.

These politicians often win (fear is a strong motivator) and over the last 20 years this country has seen an increase in mandatory sentencing, the kind of thing my drug-dealing friend faced.

But did these politicians really mean it? Do they really want every criminal sentenced the same way? Studies have proven that “tough on crime” doesn’t work. So why do we continue to ruin young people’s lives for mistakes they have made?

Do we really mean it? Do we really want to throw people away because they have made mistakes? How far down in the pit would each of us be if we had every mistake, every sin judged before a court of law? How eager are we to be forgiven, and how eager are we to forgive? 15 comments

It happened at school while I was right outside the room. The last bell had rung, I was doing hall duty, came back in the room and it was gone. Whoosh! Just like that.

Beyond the typical laptop withdrawal, I am of course concerned about the personal info on the laptop. Pictures, music, some financial stuff, etc. If anyone has any advice on how to best contain the damage from losing a laptop, I'd love to hear it.

I made the mistake on Monday (when the theft occurred) of going to the Urbana Police Department. After waiting almost an hour to see an officer, the man I did see informed me that he was leaving on vacation the next day and the case would be transferred to another officer. He assumed the other officer would be coming by the school on Tuesday to interview some kids, get more detailed information, etc.

Tuesday came and went - I called the department in the afternoon and was informed by the receptionist that the chances of recovery were slim (thanks! maybe we shouldn't even bother investigating?). I talked to her supervisor who told me he would send someone over and get back to me.

Wednesday came and went. I heard there was an officer in to see the principal, but no one contacted me and students were not interviewed by the police.

Thursday came and went. Friday came and went. Nothing. No investigation at all.

Now it is Saturday and I am using a borrowed computer. If this is the kind of response the UPD gives to a white, middle class, public employee who has a $1000 computer stolen from his classroom, can you just imagine the kind of treatment the folks on the way to county lock-up are receiving? Can you imagine how I might be treated if I lived in a bad neighborhood and I had a break-in?

I used to enjoy the fact that I can spin around town 10-15 miles over the speed limit and a UPD officer wouldn't even look twice. I used to like the fact that I could go weeks without even seeing a police car in my neighborhood. It made me feel safer, actually, to not have the cops around.

Now I realize that it might be nice to actually have a police department that serves the citizens. You know, the kind that would spend a couple of hours investigating a theft at a public school, or maybe occasionally roll through a neighborhood and give a wave - that kind of thing.

Where’s Barney Fife when you need him anyway? 7 comments