Beware the Attack of the Bigots

These scum sucking slimy offspring of religious fundamentalists, Aryan brotherhood, volunteer border patrol, conservative right wing, neo-Nazi brethren and other hate based people have reappeared in my part of the universe.

I live in southern Oregon near the city of Medford. On May 26 and again on May 29 a family of mixed racial heritage in the community of West Medford found obscenities and the letters ‘KKK’ burned onto their property.

This is the same city where in 1995 Roxanne Ellis and Michelle Abdill, a lesbian couple, were murdered by the bigot Robert Acremant.

Don’t get me wrong, there are many fine, decent, wonderful humans that live here in Southern Oregon. However, like so much of the rest of America we have an underground of hate that local, state and national authorities simply ignore, hoping it will go away. Meanwhile our local radio, television and newspapers provide a constant stream of people vomiting their hatred toward people of color, atheists, Islam, non-Christian religions and non-white ethnic groups. The hate mongers spew their evil lies about them all including the disgusting lies about “illegal immigration” we see almost daily from the likes of Lou Dobbs and his band of haters.

I am hardly your average white guy. I am a 73 year old white American. I look and sound just like your standard white American. But I am not. I have 5 daughters, and 2 sons. Between them they have 3 mothers and 4 fathers. There are 2 religions and some atheists among them. One of them is black. The spouse of one is of Hispanic descent. One of my children lives an alternative life style and is openly gay. For 6 years, I was a single parent and I had custody and raised 3 of my children alone. My family has had crosses burned on our front lawn on two separate occasions - once when we brought home our adopted 6 week old black son and again 18 months later. One of my children was murdered.  I am repulsed by bigotry of all sorts and believe in civil rights, human rights, justice, freedom, tolerance, common sense, decency for all humans.

That is how I describe myself, but I do not come close to looking like that person. Instead I look like your average old, overweight, white guy with bad teeth and that appearance somehow allows the bigots of the world to approach me with their filth. When I worked in corporate America, co-workers that barely knew me would show up at my cubical or approach me in the hallways or training facility and proceed to tell me their latest vile “joke”. No matter how I responded; mildly, politely or with anger, I was always at fault because they were only “joking”. Sometimes I was confronted repeatedly by the same individual who simply could not understand why I did not find their “jokes” funny. In the early years, when I complained to the Human Resources department I was told that those people were entitled to their opinions and jokes. This occurred long before corporate America discovered that ignoring complaints could cost them huge sums of money. This was when I learned that for my sanity I had to confront these bigots on the spot.

Now our nation is beginning another presidential political campaign and for the first time we have a candidate that like me is not your average white guy except that his appearance in no way mirrors that of your average white guy. Even in the primary campaign, his obvious ethnicity has already brought out the hate groups with their lies and filth about him. I got to experience this last Friday evening.

I went to my local casino to relax and have dinner. Sitting in one of the rooms on a penny slot machine I got a good spin and won $11.00. The lady sitting next to said “congratulations” and I thanked her. About 3 minutes later she got a good spin and I said “nice hit” and she thanked me. Just then the guy next to her hit a big win and we both congratulated him. With that he leaned over to us and said; “Do you know how Obama is going to fix the economy?” Before either the lady or I could say anything he gave us his answer, which I can not remember except that it was offensive and that the “N” word was included.

What happen next is that I lost my temper and screamed at him that I may not look it, but that I was a “N” and I did not take kindly to his bigoted comments.

But what I said and what his reaction was is not the point I want to make. The point of this is to alert decent Americans to expect the same in your part of the country. The bigots are crawling out from their pits of degeneracy and will do whatever evil they can to impede the success of his campaign. The last time this country had liberals having success in the political arena, the haters killed them. Because of the long history of hatred and bigotry I have seen and experienced I am very cynical about the future of this political campaign and his Presidency should he be elected. I for one will stunned but not surprised if attempts are made on Obama and his family.

All I can ask is that if you are a decent person please become active and speak up and challenge bigots every time they confront you with their filth.

Further, I want to alert bigots everywhere that although I do not carry a weapon, simply because I know I would use it on you, there are other decent Americans that may not be as considerate. When the day comes that someone does allow themselves to put you out of your misery, the rest of us will consider that you committed premeditated suicide.

They Always Lie - They Have to Lie

Technorati tags: liars, criminals, torturers, filthy slime, scum, villiams, neocons, right wing, anti-American

Oh Yes, They Lied

Next time you’re arguing with a conservative whether the Bush administration lied about the intelligence in the run-up to the Iraq war, or whether it innocently had the same faulty intelligence from the prior administration and every other allied country, after the new Senate Intelligence Committee report you can say: they lied.  From MSNBC’s Countdown interview with former Bush & Clinton counter-terrorism chief Richard Clarke:   LiberalOasis

You damn right they have to lie. These filthy slime, criminal scum and torturing right wing neocons would be occupying a jail cell for the rest of their lives if they ever told the truth about their murderous, torturous and anti-American activities.

10 Meaningless Facts About Oil

Today I received an email from a dear high school classmate titled “10 Simple Truths About Oil”. The email contained 10 supposed “facts” about oil that were prefaced with the following.

Ten Simple Truths about Oil
Alan Caruba
Having written about the energy industry and issues now for a long
time, I hope I can be forgiven for being enraged by the comments by
Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY) in response to President Bush’s press
conference Tuesday morning.
There is simply no way to describe them other than false.
The Democrat Party has long made “Big Oil” their favorite punching
bag, confident that the public has no idea what influences the price
and supply of oil. Saying anything favorable to Big Oil is immediately
deemed evidence that one is in their pay and whatever facts are
offered are therefore invalid.
There are, however, some simple truths about Big Oil that cannot and
should not be ignored. To do so leaves everyone at the mercy of energy
policies that have created the situation in which the United States
finds itself today.

I did not hear the comment by Sen. Schumer and so can not comment on them, but I sure can comment on Mr. Caruba’s article.  Below are each of the 10 “facts” of Mr. Caruba and following each is my response to each inane and meaningless fact.  I have never read his work before or even heard of him, but based on his high regard for big oil and his inability to frame meaningful arguments and solutions, I can only assume that somehow, someway, he is just another mouthpiece for big oil.

Meaningless Fact #1. The combined ownership of oil reserves by the independent, investor-owned oil companies such as Exxon Mobil, Conoco-Phillips, BP, Chevron and others is barely 4% of the total known oil reserves in the world. By itself, Exxon Mobil’s share is 1.08%.

Undistorted Fact: The complaints are about the enormous corporate profits and the huge income of the profiteering executives, all being made at the expense of the American public. The size of their reserves has nothing to do with the profit criticisms.

Meaningless Fact #2. Oil is a global commodity sold on mercantile exchanges for whatever price it can command. Speculation in oil prices is the primary reason they have been driven to utterly insane costs per barrel. It has nothing to do with actual supply and demand.

Undistorted Fact: The complaints are about the enormous corporate profits and the huge income of the profiteering executives, all being made at the expense of the American public. In fact every time the price of a barrel of oil increased these companies have spawned even greater profits.  So these companies are hardly interested in lower oil prices.

Meaningless Fact #3. No nation on Earth is or can be “energy independent.” The geopolitics of oil is complex, but as nations such as China and India have seen their economies grow, their need for oil grows with it and thus they compete with long established industrialized nations for existing oil supplies. This competition has an impact on prices.

Undistorted Fact: The complaints are about the enormous corporate profits and the huge income of the profiteering executives, all being made at the expense of the American public. The reason we are not becoming more energy independent is that these companies will see reduced profit in lower energy costs.

Meaningless Fact #4. The OPEC nations, those in the Middle East and including Venezuela, control 77% of the world’s known oil reserves. Like Russia and Mexico, where the oil industry is controlled by the state, it is generally poorly managed. Several Big Oil companies that were induced to undertake exploration and development in Russia and Venezuela actually had their assets nationalized or stolen at prices well below their investment and value.

Undistorted Fact: The complaints are about the enormous corporate profits and the huge income of the profiteering executives, all being made at the expense of the American public. This “fact” is meaningless and a distortion to the actual complaints of the American public. With poorly managed foreign companies and countries there is no competition and so America’s big oil can charge whatever they want and continue to rack up enormous profits.

Meaningless Fact #5. Energy is the master resource. All nations with any hope of growing their economies require it, mostly in the form of electricity, but also for oil’s role in transportation. The failure to have a national long-range energy policy that is based in reality can severely impact energy prices.

Undistorted Fact: The complaints are about the enormous corporate profits and the huge income of the profiteering executives, all being made at the expense of the American public. The current energy policy of America was planned and developed in a secret meeting with big oil at the White House early in George Bush’s first term. They made the plan that today is working so well for them and so poorly for the American public.

Meaningless Fact #6. The United States has, for years, pursued an energy policy based on environmental myths such as “biofuels” in which corn is turned into ethanol to reduce the import of oil, but it costs as much to produce ethanol as to refine oil and it provides less mileage per gallon, thus negating any reason for this additive. Likewise, suggesting that wind or solar energy can generate anything more than its current 1% of the nation’s electricity needs ignores their unreliability and the fact they are heavily subsidized, a form of hidden consumer tax.

Undistorted Fact: The complaints are about the enormous corporate profits and the huge income of the profiteering executives, all being made at the expense of the American public. This is nothing more than a continuation of the energy policy excuse already debunked above.

Meaningless Fact #7. It costs billions to explore, discover, extract and transport oil. It takes lots of lead-time as well. The United States Congress has, for decades, refused to permit the extraction of vast oil reserves in ANWR despite the fact it would have little or no impact on the Alaskan wildlife reserve. In addition, Congress has declared 85% percent of the nation’s coastal, offshore areas off-limits to any exploration for oil or natural gas.

Undistorted Fact: The complaints are about the enormous corporate profits and the huge income of the profiteering executives, all being made at the expense of the American public.  I rarely congratulate Congress, but I do in this instance. They should be commended for keeping big oil from destroying more of our planet in the name of even more corporate and executive profit.

Meaningless Fact #8. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, under the mandate of Congress, requires Big Oil to refine oil into some 17 different formulations in the name of clean air. With three grades of gasoline, that means that refiners must produce some 45 different blends. The quality of air in America is excellent, but the cost of gasoline at the pump continues to rise as the result of these mandates.

Undistorted Fact: The complaints are about the enormous corporate profits and the huge income of the profiteering executives, all being made at the expense of the American public.  This can’t be true, in meaningless fact #2 he explained that speculation in oil prices is why pump prices are so high.  Geeze, he can’t even remember his own meaningless facts.

Meaningless Fact #9. America imports two-thirds of the oil it uses. All of its transportation runs on oil. The population continues to grow. Failure to encourage the construction of a single new refinery since the 1970s puts a further strain on the ability of Big Oil to provide the nation’s oil and diesel fuel needs.

Undistorted Fact: The complaints are about the enormous corporate profits and the huge income of the profiteering executives, all being made at the expense of the American public.  By “failure to encourage” he means that big oil was not given substantial hand outs in the form of tax breaks. Geeze, he not only wants enormous profits, but also wants the average American to foot the bill for new construction. He can only be a mouthpiece for them.

Meaningless Fact #10. Democrats continue to demand that Big Oil’s profits be confiscated in some fashion and some of the inducements offered to explore for more oil be ended. Because the costs of exploration, extraction, refining, and transporting of oil represents billions, the actual profit margin of a company like Exxon Mobil is about 10%, well below what industries such as pharmaceuticals and banking enjoy.

Undistorted Fact: The complaints are about the enormous corporate profits and the huge income of the profiteering executives, all being made at the expense of the American public. Unless you are an executive at big oil you must be paying substantially more at the pump. I seriously doubt big oil has figured out how to determine our political view when we stick the pump hose in the gas tank of our cars.  All of my friends, family, neighbors have complained about the price they are paying and I can assure you they are not all Democrat.

Lastly, let me remind Mr. Caruba and big oil that the complaints are about the enormous corporate profits and the huge income of the profiteering executives, all being made at the expense of the American public. Much of this criticism would not be present had they kept pump prices at a level that would provide them a reasonable profit rather than gouging the American public, Republicans, Independents and Democrats alike to fill their corporate and executive coffers.

Liberal or Conservative?

Definition of Liberal from wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn

• broad: showing or characterized by broad-mindedness; “a broad political stance”; “generous and broad sympathies”; “a liberal newspaper”; “tolerant …
• having political or social views favoring reform and progress
• tolerant of change; not bound by authoritarianism, orthodoxy, or tradition
• a person who favors a political philosophy of progress and reform and the protection of civil liberties
• big: given or giving freely; “was a big tipper”; “the bounteous goodness of God”; “bountiful compliments”; “a freehanded host”; “a handsome allowance”; “Saturday’s child is loving and giving”; “a liberal backer of the arts”; “a munificent gift”; “her fond and openhanded grandfather”
• a person who favors an economic theory of laissez-faire and self-regulating markets
• free: not literal; “a loose interpretation of what she had been told”; “a free translation of the poem”

 

Since Conservative is the antonym of Liberal and using the above formal definition of Liberal, I have arrived at the following definition of Conservative.

• narrow: showing or characterized by narrow-mindedness; “a narrow political stance”; “stingy and narrow sympathies”; “a conservative newspaper”; “intolerant …
• having political or social views favoring status quo and regression
• intolerant of change; bound by authoritarianism, orthodoxy, or tradition
• a person who favors a political philosophy of regression and impairment and the repression of civil liberties
• small: miserly or stingy, “not known for largesse”; “the devils own”; “tightwad”; “bring your own bottle to their party”; “still has their first dollar”; “cruel and mean” …..
• a person who favors an economic theory of manipulated markets, insider trading, and preeminence of the wealthy
• enslaver; literal; one who interprets fundamentally …..  

 

The interesting thing here is that mainly using the antonyms of the liberal definitions does not much alter my understanding of the motivations and personalities of Liberals or Conservatives.

Huckabee encourages people to shoot at Barack Obama

Technorati tags: Opinion, villain, criminal, Huckabee, Barack, Obama, NRA, Second Amendment, guns, murderer, religion, Republican

Huckabee, previously just a rotten piece of religious elephant shit has now achieved a unique status, amongst other titles he is also a Pig F—king Whore.  Based on statements like this of his, my guess is that he is the exactly the kind of individual that would willingly point a gun at someone and shoot at them simply because of their politics, religion, color, gender, sexual orientation, genetic heritage, or other excuse he could fabricate in his weak little mind. His statement expressing approval of just that most certainly encourages someone else to shoot at Barack Obama.  Remember that Huckabee made this statement without a second thought. PFW that he is.

Republican Mike Huckabee responded to an offstage noise during his speech to the National Rifle Association by suggesting it was Barack Obama diving to the floor because someone had aimed a gun at him.

Hearing a loud noise and interrupting his speech, Huckabee said: “That was Barack Obama. He just tripped off a chair. He’s getting ready to speak and somebody aimed a gun at him and he — he dove for the floor.” Huckabee quips about gun aimed at Obama - Yahoo! News

Oh, and for the uninitiated, I am a gun owner and user.  Because I have a son that was murdered with a gun I fully understand the dangers and consequences of gun use.  Although I am not a member of the NRA, I generally support the second amendment. I am very disappointed by the people in that audience, they did not help the cause with their lack of disapproval at that statement. They should have walked out of that building immediately.

Liberals, Conservatives, Talking Heads, and Politics

Conservative? Then the thing to do is to bitch and moan about the liberal media while spinning every nuance of conservative thought in the best possible light - even if the light is a tiny candle on the other side of the moon.

Liberal? Then the thing to do is to rally against the host of conservative talk shows, newspapers, magazines and radio “personalities” while spinning liberal thought in the best possible light - regardless of the lack of shadow that light produces.

Hell, it is hard to tell which group will irritate, frustrate and sicken me more.

Basically I am a liberal person, but I have no truck with the way the two Democratic candidates are campaigning. Hillary began this campaign as the leading candidate with virtually the nomination sewed up. Along comes Barack and defeats her at some of the early caucus’s and now the democratic electorate has been totally upset.  But that could easily be rectified by Barack stepping down for the good of the party and releasing his delegates. Of course he does not do that. Then he gradually over comes her lead and gains his own lead in the delegate count. What happens then? Why all of his supporters immediately call for Hilary to step down for the good of the party.

WTF, where were they when she was ahead? To me, these liberals sound just like the talking heads in the conservative media. All I want is for them to please shut up or talk about important matters. Clearly, people on both sides seem totally interested in winning the election - solving our nation’s problems is the last thing on their minds. They “like” one candidate over the other and will say and do whatever to see that person win. Personally, I don’t “like” any of them that will not work day and night before, during and after the campaign to solve our problems.

Now the campaign is almost over and what are these two candidates debating? Nothing important that is what. Gas taxes, and other meaningless political drivel that is what. Barack who claims he is going to change the political climate of America is doing exactly what all politicians do, picking a political battle over little or nothing. From where I sit, under Barack, there will be no change at all, it will continue to be politics as usual. For Hilary to spend more than 30 seconds on a gas tax initiative is absurd. Without a real meaningful solution to the entire problem the idea, at best, is a passing thought.

Why aren’t they discussing important matters like how they are going to toss Bush “The Torturer” and his band of thieves into jail for his and their criminal acts?  Or how we are going to solve the real economic issues that confront our country? How are we going to repair our country’s infrastructure? How do we deal as a society with the problems of the poor and elderly in America? What are they going to do repair our reputation around the world? How do we get the dollar back as a respected and valuable commodity in the world? How do we integrate immigrants into America without a recurring political uproar?

What I fear is that they have no idea how to accomplish these and the other big questions that must be answered and so they discuss gas taxes and other BS items. They are both politicians and neither has demonstrated the kind of leadership we desperately need.

And what do the liberal and conservative blogs write?  They in fact spin away merrily, willing to take their shot of the day at the opposition, but there is little if any meaningful dialogue. A pox on all of your houses!

Here are More Sick, Evil, Criminal People in the Legal System.

Any person with a grain of decency and common sense will tell you that these prosecutors are criminals aiding and abetting other criminals. And these are the people that we the public expect to protect us from criminals. I am quite sure that these scum are in our legal system in every state and deep into the federal level. They need to be identified and we need to send their asses to jail for a long, long time.

 

Since 2001, DNA tests have formally exonerated 31 people in Texas, 17 of them in Dallas County, both figures the highest in the U.S.

The state has paid compensation in 45 wrongful conviction cases. At least 22 of them involved prosecutors withholding evidence from the defense, including 19 from the infamous drug case in the Panhandle town of Tulia that were based on the work of a discredited undercover investigator. The other three were in Dallas County.

James Curtis Giles, who was wrongly convicted in a 1982 gang rape after the victim incorrectly picked him from a photo lineup and prosecutors withheld the confession of a co-defendant, said harsh sanctions make sense.

“A crime is a crime,” Giles said. “We’ve got to set an example — prison time or barred from practicing law.”

There’s no law in Texas calling for criminal charges for prosecutors who intentionally withhold evidence. But the Innocence Project of Texas, a nonprofit legal clinic that worked to free many of the Dallas County exonerees, plans to push for it in the session that starts in January.
DA urges sanctions for prosecutors who withhold evidence

Another Sick, Twisted and Evil Legal Mind in Support of Torture

“That’s my view. And it happens to be correct.”

 

Antonin Scalia: Torture Is Not “Cruel and Unusual Punishment”

And Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia has publicly claimed that the torture of prisoners does not violate the Eighth Amendment’s ban on “cruel and unusual punishment.” Scalia’s comment came during an interview with Lesley Stahl on CBS’s 60 Minutes.

Justice Scalia: I don’t like torture. I’m—although defining it is going to be a nice trick. But, I mean, who’s in favor of it? Nobody. And we have a law against torture. But if the—everything that is hateful and odious is not covered by some provision of the Constitution.

Lesley Stahl: If someone’s in custody, as in Abu Ghraib, and they are brutalized by a law enforcement person, if you listen to the expression, ‘cruel and unusual punishment,’ doesn’t that apply?

Justice Scalia: “No, no.”

Stahl: “Cruel and unusual punishment?”

Justice Scalia: “To the contrary. You think—you think that you would—has anybody ever referred to torture as punishment? I don’t think so.”

Stahl: “Well, I think if you’re in custody and you have a policeman who’s taken you into custody—”

Justice Scalia: “And you say he’s punishing you?”

Stahl: “Sure.”

Justice Scalia: “What’s he punishing you for? You punish somebody—”

Stahl: “Well, because he assumes you, one, either committed a crime—”

Justice Scalia: “No, no.”

Stahl: “—or that you know something that he wants to know.”

Justice Scalia: “It’s the latter. And when he’s—when he’s—when he’s hurting you in order to get information from you—”

Stahl: “Yeah.”

Justice Scalia: “—you don’t say he’s punishing you. What’s he punishing you for? He’s trying to extract—”

Stahl: “Because he thinks you’re a terrorist, and he’s going to beat the you-know-what out of you.”

Justice Scalia: “Anyway, that’s my view. And it happens to be correct.”

Democracy Now! | Headlines for April 29, 2008

 

Well America, you have just been puked on and butt fucked  by a member of the highest court in the land. And you are all worried sick about immigrants? Please get your priorities straight, the Scalia’s and their ilk are the people that will ruin this country for our children.

Andrew’s Eagle Scout Recommendation

Earlier this year I was asked to send a letter to my grandson Andrew’s Boy Scout representative. The purpose of the letter was to discuss why I believed that Andrew was an appropriate candidate for the Eagle Scout award of the Boy Scouts. 

While I am totally opposed to the policies of the Boy Scouts toward gay individuals, I believe that Andrew represents how a human being and a Boy Scout should treat other human being. Andrew is not only totally accepting of the LGBT community, he is equally accepting of people regardless of their religious background. Even better, he is repulsed by discrimination and bigotry of any kind. To me he is the best representative of our human species and I am extremely proud of him.

The letter I sent follows:

I am 73 years old with 7 children, 10 grandchildren and 2 great grand children.  Andrew represents the best that a person can expect from a descendant and certainly achieves the requirements one would expect of an Eagle Scout. 

Allow me to define what I mean by that with several examples of his worthiness.

Before Andrew was in his teens, he became interested in music.  He decided to learn the guitar and so his parents had him begin lessons.  Shortly after he began these lessons I came to San Ramon and visited for about a week.  Every day Andrew came home from school, did his homework and then practiced his guitar.  One can not describe the awful discordant and unmusical sounds that emanated from that instrument.  It was painful to be in the same house with him.  Over the ensuing years he continued his instruction.  Subsequently, each visit of mine, I continued to observe his perseverance and  gradually over time I began to hear him create actual music.  Early on he could easily have given up and no one would have questioned why.  But he had a goal and he continued to pursue it.  Today he is a fine musician and has learned several other instruments along the way.

A little over three years ago Andrew’s parents had a third son, Thomas.  As with most families with a new baby, his parents were suddenly occupied with a tiny baby.   Many children in his position would have rebelled at this sudden change in their parents attention, but not Andrew.  Andrew decided that he could do things differently.  He became almost a third parent to Thomas.  Andrew bathed Thomas, changed filthy diapers, dressed,  fed, played and coddled him for hours on end.  When Thomas was under a year, the entire family attended a family function in southern California.  After this function, I spoke with other family members, nephews and such and they expressed their delight in observing the loving care and affection Andrew displayed with Thomas.  Thomas has since been diagnosed as autistic and Andrew continues to be a major factor in Thomas’s life. 

Through all of this, Andrew also has been active in his school.  He always seems to have a number of extra curricular activities and does so while maintaining high grades.  Over the years, his parents have repeatedly told me that he has the respect of both his peers and the teachers. 

When I review the criteria required of an Eagle Scout, I think of the manner in which Andrew conducts himself, his relationship with the community, the manner in which he confronts life and all of it challenges.  Thus it seems to me that he fully demonstrates the caliber of individual that we expect to see in an Eagle Scout.   In my mind, he has already achieved that distinction.

The Evil Legal Mind Behind the Torture

Torture is a frightening word and yet the leaders of our government not only approve of it, they encourage its use.  If this is not enough to scare you, then I wonder what it is that our government can do to you that will frighten you.

And, please don’t give me the explanation that it won’t happen to you because you are an honest, decent, law abiding person.  I have no doubt that some, if not most, of those tortured by our government were honest, decent and law abiding persons. You are lucky because you just happened to not be on their list - this time around.

Recently, we discovered that John Choon Yoo, a Professor of Law at the U. C. Berkeley School of Law is the legal mind that gave our government permission to torture.  The discovery of Professor Yoo’s role in this horrid, sickening blot on our nation has led to calls for his dismissal at U. C. Berkeley.

In response to those calls for dismissal Dean Christopher Edley, Jr. Professor Yoo’s boss at Berkeley refused to consider Yoo’s dismissal.  The reaction has been as expected - humanists are appalled and sadists are overjoyed.

Over at Democrats.com they wrote Dean Edley Defends War Criminal John Yoo which is hardly a fence straddling title.  But a much more thoughtful and incisive article was authored by Scott Horton titled A Response to Dean Edley.

I took a different approach and wrote Dean Edley my own email, although I really doubt he will see it or even hear of it. After all I am a nobody and Professor Yoo is one of his own staff. Some underling of his will most likely set it aside in the “For Dismissal” pile of emails.  I do hope he is receiving a lot of them.

My email to Dean Edley follows:

 

Dear Dean Edley

I have read your response to the American Freedom Campaign regarding their call for the dismissal of Professor John Choon Yoo.   

My understanding of your response is that you legally may not, and personally would not, dismiss Professor Yoo or anyone else on your staff for simply stating an opinion.  By that, I understand that regardless of the evilness of their statements and opinions and with no regard for the forum used for those statements and opinions, that you would defend their right to their opinion.  What ever happened to holding persons in responsible positions to a higher standard?

I do agree with you that in America Professor Yoo has the liberty and freedom to express his opinion. Further, I also believe that you have the same freedom as well as the authority to dismiss him, if you choose to exercise that authority. Many Americans have been dismissed for much less. Despite my distaste for your decision regarding his dismissal, I have no recourse but to accept it. 

However, my understanding is that your position and responsibilities provide you with the authority over certain aspects of Professor Yoo’s role and duties at Berkeley.

I believe that you have the authority to deny Professor Yoo access to the students enrolled in your department and you also have the authority to deny Professor Yoo any funding or support beyond which you are legally obligated.   

I believe that Professor Yoo’s actions are evil, immoral, contemptible, and in no way represent the values that have made our nation great.  Therefore I strongly urge you to isolate Professor Yoo and prevent him from receiving funds and from teaching his evil, immoral and un-American ideas to the students of your department. 

I trust this is an option that your standards will allow.

Sincerely

Ronald Hager