Susan Rice’s withdrawal makes no sense

Did U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice’s misleading remarks surrounding Libya warrant her withdrawal and a storm of criticism from the right?

The questions surrounding U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice among Democrats and moderates are, did President Obama give up on Rice when he should have fought and did Rice’s misleading remarks surrounding Libya warrant her withdrawal and a storm of criticism from the right?

First of all, I really don’t really see what all of the hype for or against Susan Rice is all about. Yes, she’s an educated and accomplished woman of color, but what I saw during the Libyan attacks was really a failure to lead on her part. It’s unfortunate that despite all of her accomplishments and deeds she did for Libya, she will always be defined by a miscalculation. This is the state of our 24/7 media, blogosphere and political environment.

We never let up.

Rice could have said that local officials and her were working out details in the case, but had no concrete leads at the time. Instead she chose to greatly misinform the American public on an issue where Americans lost their lives. It was in bad taste at Rice’s worst and sloppy at her best.

I do believe the Obama administration bares a lot of the blame for this because Rice was only regurgitating an Obama administration talking point. According to the Washington Post, Obama was clearly frustrated with how the conservatives took aim at Rice and thought more of the blame should be placed on him. But at a time where the administration is working on raising taxes on high-income earners, Obama felt as though his political capital could have been spent elsewhere.

Now, is this incident as bad as what happened under the other RIce’s watch when the worst attacks on American soil happened that dreadful day of 9/11; where Rice and the Bush administration failed to respond to intelligence of an impeding attack?

By no means.

But Susan Rice underestimated the fuel, anger and the fire of the conservative blogosphere. The elections of 2012 are over, but a lot of disbelief and bitterness still surround the right. They’ve desperately been looking for a win and Rice’s withdrawal is definitely a much needed one for the Republicans.

In what was supposed to be an issue during the latter days of the 2012 elections, this issue ended up being something the conservative blogs and pundits held onto rather than taking a critical look at their poorly executed campaign.

But was this “lie” the worst her opponents saw in her, because it really wasn’t a lie as much as it was a refusal to tell the public the scope of the incident.

The video attacking Islam did not help with what Libyan officials were trying to accomplish in the country. There’s no excuse for harming people because they express their freedom of speech, but there’s also no excuse to denounce a whole religion and paint them in a bad light. For the conservative wing of the Republican Party to beat the war drums on Libya and then sabotage efforts of foreign officials is not only hypocritical, but self-defeating and short-sighted.

Is the right-wing real upset that Rice didn’t tell the public the truth about what happened? I thought Rice’s detractors were OK with the government withholding information to the public when it came to the military and foreign affairs? When Bradley Manning exposed the military and the U.S. government, Rice’s detractors were there to protect the public’s right to know, right? Wrong. Instead they were OK with torturing and depriving Manning of sleep and basic human rights.

The Republicans have been looking for any way to gain ground after face-planting in the 2012 elections; an election that was not anything less than a “gimme.” You’ve got to give it to them though, they never let go of this issue. However, the question is, in Obama’s second term, has he learned enough about how politics are played these days?

Obama has been seen as weak by some Democrats during his first term, so does this withdrawal help further their criticism of him? If he fails to raise tax rates on the wealthy despite saying he OK’d this withdrawal so that he could have more capital for the “fiscal cliff,” Obama will be 0-2 on pivotal issues entering his second term.

I’m Not Turning a Blind Eye, I’m Just Not Participating Anymore

Intuition

I’ve been going back and forth between being actively involved in the political process and not giving a damn. For a few years, I was actively involved in politics. I voted, I watched bills as they passed through the House and were then crushed by the Senate. I watched as Congress spent all of their energy filibustering any real change instead of just voting on an issue. I watched as president after president convinced me that they weren’t like the ones before them, but they would be different “this time.” I watched as 9/11 first responders were an afterthought after President Bush and then Mayor Giuliani told them it was okay to breathe the air at Ground Zero even though most people in New York knew the Twin Towers were an asbestos minefield.

My final straw was seeing the president and Congress point their fingers at each other and stall and real progress for… well… political reasons. The mortgage fraud in this country is apparent, but Congress and the president are too worried about kicking the can and fighting for or against the new health care system. People are losing their homes, children are becoming fatter and sicker, the health industries and Pharma are still making profits by making sure we don’t find cures, but that we keep people sick enough to fork over their life savings. Our elders face the possibility of having their benefits cuts, immigrants are treated like vermin in the South where the government is now threatening to cut off water to anyone who may “harbor” illegals. Governors in the Southwest are spreading lies and convincing their fearful voters that immigrants are the real reason the country is in the mess it’s in. And lastly, our government is pushing to keep us dependent on oil and nuclear energy as if we don’t remember what happened in Japan and the Gulf of Mexico.

Now I do what I can to change the way I think about the world. I do what I can to grow continuously. There are people who are going to fight and resist the changes that is coming; These people will always exist. But I’ve come to realize that change is coming whether or not we participate. I’d rather spend my energy on more productive things like cleaning up the physical and metaphorical residue I’ve left behind, but I respect those that actively protest against the injustices that occur in this death life. Today, I’m more willing to change my life for the better, assist the less fortunate and let others learn through my mistakes and good-will.

To be living in these times is a blessing and my life is not exempt from that. Spending time appreciating what I have, giving thanks and enjoying the bountiful love from universe is what I would like will spend the rest of my days on this Earth doing. It’s my intuition, meaning I can’t quite put a finger on why I choose to follow this path. All I know is that I choose to do this.

So again, I choose not to participate in this mess we’re in not because the world is too much for me to handle, but because I recognize the web of lies we’ve all woven to create this reality and I choose to not be a part of that way of living. This is a lot different from choosing not to participate in something because of being too afraid to see the truth. I have paid attention, I intend to follow a different path, I will follow a different path (i.e., my integrity) and this will help me get in touch with my intuition.

*This post is dedicated to Ian Xel Lungold (1949-2005). RIP.

Why Americans Are Fed Up

Credit to Dave Chappelle

This post is less about what can be supported and proven with timely news evidence and more about how I see the world from my narrow and young perspective. Some things cannot be supported by what other people report on, so this is why I blog.

For starters our leaders are useless. We have our politicians professional swindlers of this country telling us “Everything is going to be okay, but in the meantime, hang in there and oh yea, be afraid of another terrorist attack.” You see, like George Carlin said, the system has us “by the balls.”

I’m tired of being afraid and hoping for the better when I know what these devils are up to. I mean damn, look at what they are telling us after the alleged killing of “terrorist” Anwar al-Awlaki (I mean are Muslims and brown people the only terrorists worth fighting today?). Now international flyers have to beware of retaliation. They want us to stay scared so they can pass legislature that take away our rights, e.g., Patriot Act and Citizens United, and redistribute our money and opportunities to the richest few.

We are mad because people like my mother are struggling to make ends meet. Yea she has a nice TV and a nice car, but she’s single and the price of everything is going up because of inflation. My mother barely has leftover cash after a month’s pay like she used to—And she just finished paying off her car note which should have put at least $500 in her checking account. So why is she being stretched?

Her car and home insurance has gone up without her even being warned by the companies. The insurance companies added another payment to her existing bill because of the recent influx in hurricanes, floods, earthquakes and other natural man-made disasters that recently occurred on the East Coast.

Let’s not forget this silly game we play every time we pass a gas station hoping the price goes down like crackheads addicted to gasoline. Gas prices continue to rise and people are rebelling. People are starting to stay at home and partake in activities that doesn’t involve driving. People are even beginning to find alternative ways of transportation like carpooling, subway transit, busing and biking. I used to bike as a graduate student at Oklahoma University and let me tell you, it saved me a lot of money and stress.

Our soldiers who risk their lives in wars should come back home with jobs waiting for them, but this too is not the case. The U.S. also lacks proper medical services for the increasing amount of soldiers returning home addicted to narcotics and suffering from PTSD & depression.

People like me who worked their asses off and graduated from universities are struggling to find anyone who is hiring (don’t get me started on the journalism profession). We worked our tails off, played by the rules and did what we were told. And how does the system reward us? They play politics, hoard money and increase barriers to entry. It’s really quite depressing to see the people I grew up with be left without an opportunity to live the American Nightmare Dream (Yea I’m enjoying that “crossing-out” feature way too much) because of a country that lost sight of what made it great: Freedom, i.e., equal opportunity to succeed and fail. Now most of us are just destined for failure.

And who can forget the 9/11 first-responders who barely have health insurance to cover their blackened lungs and compromised respiratory system after the government told them it was safe to breathe at Ground Zero? And the Congress that refused to pass a bill that would have supported health care coverage for them? Meanwhile, Congress is busy constantly shoving 9/11 horror stories down our throats and reminding us everyday what those terrorists did so they can get us to chalk up a few bucks to support their campaigns… erhh emmm… Bernie Sanders. Need I say any more about OUR American politicians?

And last but not least, we have our American businesses. Forget all the crazy rhetoric for a second because there are a lot of small and large corporations that do stand for good causes like Bill & Melinda Gates’ foundation and Target’s support of local schools. But it’s always the few and most powerful businesses that dirty the water for everyone else.

Is business in America hurting? Yes, and some of it is because the “uncertain” business environment and because we are entering a new era of trading. Advertising and business strategies have had to change how they do things because of the Internet. If you don’t believe me, ask Blockbuster’s and Borders’ CEO how things are going for them. But what is really devastating the business environment? It is the fact that there is no business. The customers and consumers don’t have the money to demand anymore. Yea, business have been hit hard by this “recession,” but middle-class families are hurting a lot more. And the thing that should break all of our hearts is the fact that 1 in 5 children in America are impoverished. Children are more likely to be poor in America than any other segment of the population. Wut up wit dat?

Like Mayor Bloomberg said, if we don’t change things for this younger generation fast, they will take to the streets like in Egypt and other places across the pond. I believe the repercussions of this generation being poor and jobless will take down this empire if Goldman Sachs doesn’t do it first. We got news for you Mayor, it’s already happened. And what do they do instead of fixing the problem? They beat us and arrest us for being angry.

We are experiencing the biggest redistribution of wealth and opportunity since Africans were stolen from their homes and forced into servitude on the same land we walk on everyday. Welcome to America 2011.