WASHINGTON (AP) – The State Department says the Cuban government has arrested an American citizen and U.S. diplomats in Havana are trying learn more about the case.

Spokeswoman Megan Mattson says the Cuban government told the State Department that the American was detained on Dec. 5. She says the American is not a U.S. government employee.

She says the department can’t release any more details, including the American’s identity, because of federal privacy law.

The New York Times reported Saturday that the American is a U.S. government contractor who was working on behalf of the Obama administration distributing cell phones, laptops and other communications equipment in Cuba.

Link

Well, obviously, let’s all hope and pray for them to get out okay. That said, until American/Cuban relations are much better, Americans really need to be careful going to that country. Just like those Americans caught backpacking in Iran last year. These people will gladly arrest an American on trumped up charges and then use them as a political pawn to achieve something they don’t deserve. I realize a lot of Cuban-Americans have families over there, so this may be a sad situation of a mom going home to visit her family and getting arrested some thing. I don’t know, just saying it sucks and we Americans have to be careful going to countries that actively oppose us. It’s enemy territory.

To follow up on a post from eight months ago, the Supreme Court has granted certiorari on (decided to review) the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals’ decision in Christian Legal Society v. Kane [and the University of California, Hastings College of the Law].  (The case has since been renamed “Christian Legal Society v. Martinez.”)  According to the Christian Legal Society’s press release, the Supreme Court will “decide whether a public university can refuse to recognize a religious student group because the group requires its leaders to share its religious beliefs.”

I am not sure that that description is precisely accurate.  The Ninth Circuit opinion to be reviewed held that the UC Hastings Law School’s policy that ”all groups must accept all comers as voting members even if those individuals disagree with the mission of the group” was constitutionally permissible because it was “viewpoint neutral and reasonable.”  The “question presented” in the Supreme Court docket is “Whether the Ninth Circuit erred when it held, directly contrary to the Seventh Circuit’s decision in Christian Legal Society v. Walker, 453 F.3d 853 (7th Cir. 2006), that the Constitution allows a state law school to deny recognition to a religious student organization because the group requires its officers and voting members to agree with its core religious viewpoints”, as stated in the CLS’ petition.  (Scotusblog reported that the Court will decide “[w]hether a public university law school may deny school funding and other benefits to a religious student organization because the group requires its officers and voting members to agree with its core religious viewpoints”.)  Of course, none of these quite explain the hot-button point of this whole thing: the CLS wants to officially, as part of its organizational constitution, prevent homosexuals from becoming members or officers of CLS, and Hastings desires not to fund student groups that discriminate against homosexuals. 

One slight variation between the press release and the court docket is that the Supreme Court’s term is “core religious viewpoints”, not “religious beliefs,” which could be an important distinction.  Another issue I note is that even if Hastings requires all groups to “accept all comers as voting members” (the foundation of the Ninth Circuit’s decision), the CLS student group easily could have done that, and yet still required its officers to fit within the guidelines that the voting members established.  If gays, lesbians, and whoever else want to become officers, they can join the CLS and rally a vote to change the guidelines for officers (and law students have much better things to do than join groups and attend meetings just to oppose the missions of those groups and face the hostile arguments that would go with that attempt).  

In any event, the Hastings policy really seems ridiculous aside from its discriminatory aspect.  The CLS could probably say “anyone who shows up at the Bible study on [date] can vote.”  They can spread that message by email to the other CLS members.  Who is going to know?  Non-Christians will not regularly attend the Bible studies (it’s hard enough to get the Christians to attend them).  The policy seems to be a wholly ineffective way to “make a statement” against discrimination. 

Moreover, Hastings could eradicate its “official” policy prohibiting recognition of groups that don’t allow gay and lesbian officials, and simply allow the student government to assign funds however they want, which will inevitably include discrimination against the CLS anyway (and I speak from experience in this regard).

Nevertheless, the importance in the case is not that the CLS get funding, or that the CLS’ rule be permitted to stand (the group could continue to meet with its rule intact without funding from the school).  Rather, the important issue is that government not be permitted overt discrimination against the faithful for their commitment to their religions (whatever religion that may be), even when their religions deem homosexual activity to be sinful. 

Potentially, the Supreme Court could delve into whether the doctrine against homosexual sex is a “core religious viewpoint”, as stated in its “Question Presented,” because there are Christians who believe homosexual activity is morally acceptable.  Of course, that would certainly get the attention of the more conservative Christians across the country; they will not take kindly to a governmental entity telling them what their “core religious viewpoints” are.  I doubt that the Supreme Court would risk such a backlash, which could ultimately undermine its power.

More likely, the Court’s decision will set guidelines for a state school’s recognition of, or discrimination against, student-led religious organizations on the college/post-graduate level.  The ironic thing here is that even though the public school seeks to prohibit an organization from “discriminating” against homosexuals and others, it “discriminates” against those who believe homosexuality is wrong.  So the public school erred on the side of freedom of sexual activity over freedom of religion and conscience.  Such is the result of the sexual revolution.  And that is a scary progression, from dedication to conscience to dedication to sex.

We can only hope the Supreme Court doesn’t make it worse.

Interesting theory of what strategy might help explaining what’s going on in the White House. I know Glenn Beck makes a living on fear tactics, but he was right about Van Jones and I don’t think it’s too crazy to think this might have some legs.

Before you take any vaccine – watch this Documentary!

This feature length documentary about medical madness, cloaked in bioterrorism preparedness, will awaken the brain dead. It exposes health officials, directed by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), for conducting a “War of Terror” that is killing millions of unwitting Americans. This urgent life-saving DVD comes without copyright restrictions. Every viewer is encouraged to reproduce and distribute copies to others.

It was produced by award-winning humanitarian, Dr. Leonard G. Horowitz (http://www.DrLenHorowitz.com), a world-renowned authority in public health education, covert intelligence agency operations, and emerging diseases investigations. He is the author of three American bestsellers, including Emerging Viruses: AIDS & Ebola—Nature, Accident or Intentional? and Healing Codes for the Biological Apocalypse.

]]> http://windfarms.wordpress.com/2009/08/30/h1n1-in-lies-we-trust/ Sun, 30 Aug 2009 21:34:21 +0000 atomcat http://windfarms.wordpress.com/2009/08/30/h1n1-in-lies-we-trust/

Before you take any vaccine – watch this Documentary!

This feature length documentary about medical madness, cloaked in bioterrorism preparedness, will awaken the brain dead. It exposes health officials, directed by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), for conducting a “War of Terror” that is killing millions of unwitting Americans. This urgent life-saving DVD comes without copyright restrictions. Every viewer is encouraged to reproduce and distribute copies to others.

It was produced by award-winning humanitarian, Dr. Leonard G. Horowitz (http://www.DrLenHorowitz.com), a world-renowned authority in public health education, covert intelligence agency operations, and emerging diseases investigations. He is the author of three American bestsellers, including Emerging Viruses: AIDS & Ebola—Nature, Accident or Intentional? and Healing Codes for the Biological Apocalypse.

]]> http://bostonkayakguy.wordpress.com/2009/08/29/eulogy-for-ted-kennedy-by-president-barack-obama/ Sat, 29 Aug 2009 17:04:25 +0000 bostonkayakguy http://bostonkayakguy.wordpress.com/2009/08/29/eulogy-for-ted-kennedy-by-president-barack-obama/ http://tenaji.wordpress.com/2009/08/16/politics-suck/ Sun, 16 Aug 2009 22:48:05 +0000 QueenArdnassak http://tenaji.wordpress.com/2009/08/16/politics-suck/

Alright, sometime after this there will also be a funny post, but I decided that right now I’m posting something serious.

Warning: The following material may offend liberals, Obama-supporters, or anyone who takes race extremely seriously. Some of the facts may also be wrong. Give me a break, I’m a fourteen-year-old girl, not a genius.

Yesterday, I had an interesting conversation with my cousin, Lissa. She and I are both conservatives, even if we’re slightly different types of conservatives. I would like everyone to keep in mind that the average of our ages is thirteen, and please forgive us for any mistakes in our logic.

We started talking politics, and we came to these conclusions:

Obama never should have been elected. It should have been McCain. I’m not saying that he was the best for the job, I’m just saying that he was better than Obama. Honestly, we don’t need change in this nation, we never did. What we need is for the market to become less inflated, and a level-headed person in the White-House who will think things through and not spend trillions of dollars on bail-out plans. That’s trillions of dollars that this nation doesn’t have, I might add.

Not only that, but Obama wants to take away everyone’s guns. Now, this may come as relief to some, but as a gun-supporter and hunter, I have to say that taking people’s guns away is the single stupidest idea I have ever heard. There won’t be peace, and crime won’t end. They will take away the guns of all the law-abiding citizens, and all the criminals will keep their guns. Then, the criminals will go on a crime-spree, shooting everyone in their way, because we’re not going to have anything to defend ourselves with.

And does he really think that taking away our guns is going to bring peace to the nation? If he takes away the guns, we’ll fight with bows and arrows and knives, and if he takes those away, we’ll fight with rocks and sticks, and the few of us who own swords (my family owns one), will fight with those. If Obama takes away everything he thinks can be used as a weapon, we’ll just use other things. We’ll choke people with necklaces, stab people with pens, and beat each other with lamps. Violence is human nature, and it isn’t going to end just because some dimwit politician decides to take away our guns.

Why did we elect this guy anyway? Is it because he promises change? Probably not. At least a few of Obama’s votes came because people thought that if they didn’t vote for him they’d be accused of being racist. Hang on just a second—voting for a guy because he’s black? That sounds more racist than voting for his opposition.

And what’s with all this racism towards white people? I am not racist toward anyone. Hell, my aunt is black, she’s native Ethiopian. Alright, we kept black people as slaves, which was completely and utterly WRONG, and we took the Indian’s land a few hundred years ago. We’ve had a few hundred years to repent for our wrong-doings, alright? Just forgive us already!

It’s exactly the same with feminism. I have no problem proving to any man that I can do anything he can do. But just because women were treated badly two hundred years ago is no reason to make the men pay for it now. However, because we still owe these people something because we treated them badly (as if the millions of taxpayer’s dollars isn’t enough), employers are now hiring people based on the color of their skin and their gender.

Picture this, if you will: An employer has narrowed the candidates for the job down to four people. A white male, a white female, a black male, and a black female. They all have around the same qualifications. So how does he judge which to hire? Well, you can figure the white guy out of the picture immediately. He’s just a white bred male. Nothing special about him. He doesn’t have boobs and his skin is pale. No hiring him. Next, you take the white girl out of the equation. She’s a white girl. That’s almost as bad as the white guy, except that she has boobs. Next out of the equation is the black guy, because he’s a guy. All that’s left is the black girl, so he’s not going to be accused of racism or sexism.

Whatever happened to hiring people because of their qualifications, instead of deciding based on the color of people’s skin or whether or not they wear a bra? In a truly equal society, that would be the way it is. It wouldn’t matter whether you shaved your face or your legs, or whether your skin is ebony or ivory, all that would matter is whether you have the skills to get the job done. Unfortunately, that’s not the way it is. If it continues on this path, white people are only going to be able to get jobs at fast-food restaurants, and when all those jobs are gone, as whores. Why? Because we’re white, and employers can’t give white people good jobs without being accused of racism.

After some consideration, Lissa and I both came to the same conclusion:

Politics suck.

PASS THIS ON TO YOUR FRIENDS IN IRAN—- THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT
In case you have had chemical water poured on you by the government helicopter –>
DO NOT WASH IT WITH SOAP AND WATER
THE CHEMICAL HAS AN ALKALI BASE….SOAP AND WATER MAKES IT WORSE
YOU NEED SOMETHING WITH AN ACIDIC BASE TO WASH IT OFF
USE LEMON JUICE ON VINEGAR TO WASH OFF THE CHEMICAL…
PLEASE PASS THIS ON HOWEVER YOU CAN

برای شستن مایعات پاشیده شده از هلیکوپترها از صابون و آب استفاده نکنید. حتما از مایعات اسیدی استفاده کنید. مثل آب لیمو و سرکه. چون مایعات پاشیده شده خودشان باز هستند. صابون باعث تشدید التهاب پوست میشود

برای معالجهٔ سوزش موادی که از هلیکوپترها پاشیده میشه: ۲ گرم جوش شیرین را با یه لیتر آب سرد مخلوط کنید و محل 
 

KOMPAS, Senin, 1 Juni 2009 | 02:56 WIB

Triyono Lukmantoro

Saling sindir di antara pemimpin politik negeri ini terus terjadi. Dengan menggunakan slogan kampanye ”lebih cepat, lebih baik”, Jusuf Kalla (JK) bagai menohok Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (SBY).

Tohokan itu dibalas SBY, ”jangan takabur”. Capailah tujuan politik secara berbudaya, beradab, dan beretika. Ajakan ini menyiratkan tuduhan, lawan politiknya menjalankan praktik politik tak berbudaya. Ajakan ini terdengar lembut, tetapi merupakan pukulan telak balik.

Perang retorika kian merajalela. Polarisasi dalam kabinet pun sulit dihindari. Para menteri pun terbelah. Ironisnya, kabinet pimpinan SBY-JK ini masih menyisakan banyak agenda.

Nasib rakyat benar-benar dipertaruhkan. Adakah kedua pemimpin ini masih memikirkan kemaslahatan saat mereka sibuk dengan berbagai kunjungan yang tujuan utamanya adalah menggalang dukungan? Untuk mengelakkan tudingan bahwa mereka pecah dan menyajikan kesan mereka bisa saling sapa, SBY-JK sesekali tampil bersama.

Apa makna semua peristiwa itu? Itulah pentas drama politik. Terkesan akrab saat berjumpa, tetapi saling memusuhi saat berpisah. Sikap ramah ditonjolkan saat berhadapan wajah, tetapi bermusuhan saat berjauhan. Politik sebagai drama memang penuh kepura-puraan, tak ada ketulusan.

Benar apa yang dikemukakan M Edelman (sebagaimana dikutip Emilie Gomart dan Marteen Hajer, Is That Politics?, 2002) bahwa dalam drama, opera, balet, pameran lukisan, dan pertunjukan musik, setting (lokasi kejadian) telah diatur rapi dan dimanipulasi seperti sering terjadi dalam pemanggungan aneka tindakan pemerintahan. Artinya, rasio yang sengaja dipilih merupakan relasi lokasi-tindakan untuk menampilkan cara aneka perbuatan yang paling tepat dimainkan. Drama memang penuh kepalsuan, tetapi di situlah kemenangan ditentukan.

Modus tindakan

Politik sebagai drama atau pementasan drama politik yang terjadi saat ini mengingatkan kita pada pemikiran Kenneth Burke (1897-1993). ”Kehidupan adalah drama dan dunia adalah teaternya,” kata Burke. Pada konteks di negeri kita, ungkapan itu bisa diadaptasikan menjadi ”Politik adalah drama dan Indonesia adalah teaternya”.

Mengikuti ide Burke, ada lima unsur yang dapat mengidentifikasi SBY-JK ”bermain drama”.

Pertama, act. Artinya, perkataan apa pun—spesifik maupun umum—yang memiliki konotasi sadar atau bertujuan yang membentuk tindakan. Mengkritik dengan gaya berapi-api maupun imbauan untuk berpolitik penuh kesantunan selalu mengandaikan motivasi yang tidak bisa dibohongi. Meski kata-kata diucapkan dalam bungkus kebahasaan yang halus, apalagi terucap secara kasar, otomatis didasari keinginan untuk merebut simpati maupun dukungan.

Kedua, scene. Merujuk lokasi atau situasi yang menentukan tindakan dijalankan. Pada tempat-tempat yang saling terpisah, permusuhan sengaja dinyalakan secara konstan. Sebaliknya, pada situasi tertentu yang mengharuskan keduanya saling bekerja sama, keramahtamahan ditampakkan. Semua itu tidak lepas dari suasana persaingan yang bermuara pada tujuan meraih kemenangan. Bukankah dalam politik, mencuri kesempatan harus selalu diperhitungkan?

Ketiga, agent yang menunjuk pada kelompok maupun individu yang sedang menjalankan tindakan. Inilah pelaku-pelaku yang dengan mudah dapat diidentifikasi sosoknya, seperti incumbent yang sedang menjabat dan mempertahankan kekuasaan, challenger yang berupaya menantang dan mengambil alih kekuasaan, atau tim-tim sukses yang beranggotakan kalangan jenderal purnawirawan. Jalinan yang muncul adalah relasi konfliktual antara hero dan villain (musuh) yang amat bergantung pada bagaimana keberpihakan dan penilaian ditetapkan.

Keempat, agency yang menunjukkan aneka sarana yang digunakan untuk menjalankan tindakan atau aneka instrumen yang dipakai untuk menuntaskan perbuatan. Saat berpidato, agency bisa berupa penggunaan gaya berbahasa atau strategi komunikasi yang dikalkulasikan paling manjur diluncurkan. Saat satu pihak berbicara dengan gaya meradang, pihak lain berupaya menunjukkan sikap tenang.

Kelima, purpose yang mengungkapkan tujuan yang ingin dicapai pelaku. Tujuan itu dapat terselubung atau terlihat nyata. Tetapi, bukankah dalam kompetisi politik, tujuan yang mutlak diinginkan ialah merebut kekuasaan? Hanya itu. Kesantunan maupun kekasaran berbahasa hanya kemasan yang bisa dipoles sesuai selera. Kesantunan dalam memainkan retorika adalah muslihat pembungkus ambisi. Itu sama nilainya dengan keterusterangan yang diklaim sebagai kecekatan.

Lahirlah korban

Burke mengemukakan, saat ada tindakan, hadirlah drama. Saat ada drama, muncul pertikaian. Ketika ada pertikaian, lahirlah korban. Siapa yang menjadi korban dalam pentas drama politik ini? Korban bukan para aktor yang sedang memainkan retorika dan menggalang dukungan.

Korban dalam drama politik adalah rakyat yang hidup dalam penderitaan. Para aktor drama selalu mengucapkan pemihakan kepada rakyat jelata, kenyataannya rakyat hanya dilibatkan sebagai latar belakang, tidak lebih.

Triyono Lukmantoro Dosen FISIP Universitas Diponegoro, Semarang

“Oh Ensign Bruccccyyy. All hands on dic…errr….I mean deck.”

“Yessssssss Mon Captain?”

“How are things down here in the reactor room?”

“Oooooh Mon Captain, everything is purring like a kitten.”

“So everything is fine here in the honey hole?”

“Oh it’s a well oiled machine Mon Captain.”

“So how are you enjoying your maiden voyage”

“Oooohh…did you say maiden? Because later in the Captains mess, I could dress up and…”

“Perhaps later Ensign Brucy, this is the Navy after all, and we’re all know why we’re here.”

“Well, the outfits are fierce, but the tailor has me dressing to the right, and that is absolutely not fabulous.”

“Ensign Brucy, we’re not here because of the outfits….although these black shoulder thingies I received for that time I sunk my torpedo deep into the Russkies do look rather sweet don’t they?”

“Mon Captain, I will swab your poop deck anytime!”

“Ensign Brucy, you know you have to work your way up the ranks before you can sit on my lap at the Captains table.”

“No worries Skipper, I brought plenty of Scope.”

“So tell me Brucy, why did you join the Navy?”

“Well Mon Captain, I enjoy wearing hats, and white is my colour for summer, I enjoy the ocean because I’m a water sign, I want to serve my country even though they discriminate against me and the best part, I could spend the rest of my life going down on this long hard submarine and only ever have to come up for air and occasionally some brunch,”

“Yes our kind do find ourselves with a few unusual choices don’t we. We’re either forced into the ghettos, the suburbs so we can pretend, onto HGTV or into The Navy.”

“I wonder how that ‘girl in every port’ thing got started.”

“Government propaganda.”

“The government started that? Because I thought it was just assumed like fashion, the music industry and M30.”

“Ensign Brucy, the government is a a giant douche. The whole M30 thing got started by one guy who had a glass coffee table and far too many MSN friends, fashion is obvious and Little Richard is a hero to our people.”

“Is that why we have the ‘don’t ask don’t tell’ policy?”

“Sort of, the government doesn’t want to know about many things. The same goes with the public. When I first enlisted and they asked me if i was,,,you know, the recruiting officer just gave me a wink, and the best game of milk the cow I have ever had. The same goes with out entire fleet.”

“Huh?”

“Look around poof. You’re sitting on a nuclear reactor. Well, that and I assume a monkey wrench. Our whole fleet, along with the Russians power their fleet with nuclear powered ships. The public back on shore are scared shitless about nuclear power, and gays. They don’t realize that both are protecting and empowering them.”

“Kinda like how they haven’t figured Hollywood out yet.”

“Pretty much. The public pisses themselves about gays and nuclear power, and only one of the two are truly flaming. With a fleet the size of ours as well as the Russians, if nuclear power was a danger, you’d think we’d all be lighting up like Richard Simmons at a Barbara Streisand concert. The public has been brainwashed that gays don’t fight, and nuclear power doesn’t keep them warm at night. In short, the media and the public are willingly retarded.”

“The reactor keeps us down here for a long long time….rawr. The fact that the American public thinks we don’t exist and fight for them give us our rights is something I’m used to. I was kicked around my whole life. that’s why I joined the Navy, to belong. Well, that and for all the hots in a cot. I could have gone to work at M30.”

“Ensign Brucy, the public needs to pull it’s head out of it’s ass. Many of the things they fear the most are actually saving them, and most of the things they prey to, are bullshit. Has Wal Mart or the church ever saved a life? Have they ever fought a war or kept families warm? It’s days like this I am glad I am down here underwater so I don’t have to talk to those retards.”

“Mon Captain, do you think either of us will ever get a fair shake?”

“If the public ever realizes that both of us, nuclear power and gays are powerful and explosive like Rosie who still is an abomination to us all that we will always keep the lights on and make sure they are safe and don’t have to resort to flaming torches.”

“Mon Captain, I can see why you have your stripes. This conversation was even far less gay than Top Gun. Can I see your torpedo that you sunk into the Russkies with now?”

BOOMCHICKAWAWA