Jacki’s whereIstand Blog

and the Bush Administration has managed to double the death toll.

whereIstand Tags

• GeorgeWBush
• Has the invasion of Iraq been successful?

Bush needs a bright line rule on interrogation methods for CIA officials.  Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions is not sufficiently clear when it restricts:

violence to life and person, in particular murder of all kinds, mutilation, cruel treatment and torture and outrages upon personal dignity, in particular, humiliating and degrading treatment.

How’s this for a bright line rule:

Just ask questions.  Nothing else.  No sleep deprivation.  No waterboarding.  No bright lights.  No dogs.  No humiliation.

How much credible evidence has the U.S. obtained through "alternative interrogation techniques?"  Does anyone know?  Has the CIA or DOD researched the substance of the confessions in relation to the interrogation techniques used?

Has anyone at the DOD raised the possibility that maybe some of the people living in the Middle East might hate the U.S. a little less if we treated prisoners more humanely?

whereIstand Tags

• GeorgeWBush
• What should be done with the Guantanamo detainees?

Tom Curley, AP President and CEO called upon the U.S. to release one of the organization’s photographers, Bilal Hussein.  He has been in U.S. military custody in Iraq for five months.  No formal charges have been filed against him. 

With reportedly 14,000 prisoners in detention, a lack of judicial review and questionable interrogation techniques, the U.S. needs more than a partisan handshake on legislation concerning detainees.

whereIstand Tags

• USSenate
• What should be done with the Guantanamo detainees?

McCain goes head to head with the Administration.   Joining him are Republican Senators Warner, Graham and Collins as well as all of the Democrats on the Armed Services Committee.  The Committee  voted 15-9 to back an opposition bill to the Administration’s legislation concerning the use of torture and legal rights of detainees.

whereIstand Tags

• JohnMcCain

The GOP smear train has left the station …  notice not one of these five women claims James Webb discriminated against them while they served in the military only that his article legitimized others’ treatment of them.

In fairness to James Webb I feel compelled to reiterate the following … (I’m still blown away by this):

Senator George Allen while heckling S.R. Sidarth, a 20-year-old volunteer from the Webb campaign said the following:

This fellow over here with the yellow shirt - Macaca or whatever his name is - he’s with my opponent.  He’s following us around everywhere.  Let’s give a welcome to Macaca here. Welcome to America and the real world of Virginia.

Over twenty years ago, James Webb wrote an article claiming women had no place in combat.  Now I disagree with Webb but I am more offended by Allen’s comments than I am by the article Webb wrote as a result of his experience in the military.

whereIstand Tags

• JamesWebb
• GeorgeAllen
• Should women be allowed in forward support companies working with combat battalions?

From Bloomberg:

In a letter to the House Intelligence Committee Chairman Peter Hoekstra, the International Atomic Energy Agency, (IAEA) calls a Congressional report regarding IAEA’s findings in Iran “erroneous, misleading and unsubstantiated … .” 

The IAEA contends that the distortions suggested Iran’s nuclear fuel program was significantly more advanced than a series of IAEA reports and Washington’s own intelligence assessments have determined.

According to the IAEA, the committee report falsely concluded that Iran’s uranium enrichment reached a weapons-grade level in April, however IAEA inspectors insist that their conclusions at that time indicated Iran had enriched only enough uranium necessary for nuclear power reactor fuel.  "Weapons-grade uranium is commonly used to refer to uranium enriched to the order of 90 percent,” the letter said.  Iran has enriched uranium to a 3.6 percent level, according to the IAEA.

To read the House Intel Committee report click here.

whereIstand Tags

• USHouse
• UN
• What are the appropriate next steps that the U.S. should take with Iran?

The latest …

whereIstand Tags

• Has the invasion of Iraq been successful?

Is this the direction the anti-gay movement advocates?

I’d like to point out that this issue should not have been approved as is. It should read:

"Should religious-based morality play a role in the making of public policy?"

a separate issue might read:

"Should morality play a role in the making of public policy?"

whereIstand Tags

• Should morality and religion play a role in the making of public policy?

Why do people have preconceived notions about sex?  People are less inhibited about drinking than they are about sex.  And lots of tragic results occur from drinking.  But sex has a different type of taboo, doesn’t it?  As Adam puts it, sex should be "nice" and "personal."  Why?  Why must sex conform to a set of expectations?

In assailing "premarital" sex, Adam fails to recognize the importance of personal choice.  Maybe someone evaluates the risks involved in having sex and the chance of pregnancy or disease and says: Yep, i want to do it anyway. 

If my child is going to face these types of decisions I want him or her to be equipped with the measures to stay safe, (knowledge of birth control/access to condoms), rather than some preconceived, religious-based notions that sex is wrong if you are not married. 

Adam points out that sex can be not just "bad," but "deadly."  An action is not inherently wrong simply because results may or may not be bad or deadly.

Meanwhile, protection drastically reduces the risk of infection/pregnancy.  Once you introduce protection into the equation, some might even say the risk is not significant enough to deprive yourself of sex.

By the way, there are tons of sexually transmitted diseases that are not deadly.  Further, many of us do not consider there to be anything "deadly" about unwanted pregnancy or abortion.

The fact of the matter is - as MisterE points out - bad, deadly, stuff happens all the time but you can’t restrict when people have sex, with whom, who they marry and who they divorce, just because something terrible might happen.  That’s not practical or reasonable.

It seems Adam thinks sex is wrong when it’s not romantic.   I should not have to point out that romance is particular to the individual.   Everyone has very different ideas of what constitutes romance.  For instance Adam says this about casual sex:

Yeah, that’s nice and impersonal, so people are just implements to be used for pleasure and who you slept with yesterday has nothing to do with who you sleep with today.

Adam is entitled to want sex that is "nice" and "personal" and he can marry someone else who has similar ideas about sex but what he should not be permitted to do is enforce his views concerning sex on the rest of the population.   Who says sex has to be "nice" or "personal?"  Never mind, that’s a rhetorical question.  The bible citations rightly will be lost on me.

whereIstand Tags

• adamelijah
• jallard
• MisterE
• [open thread]
• [open thread]
• Should people engage in premarital sex?