President Bush today issued the first veto of his presidency. It wasn’t a spending bill that he vetoed. He is, generally speaking, more liberal than this Congress when it comes to spending money on government programs. It wasn’t a bill that curtailed executive authority. After all, he uses signing statements to give himself minimal legal cover to sign those bills and then just ignore them. Remember, this president is above the law, and therefore why should he bother vetoing a law that would only apply to him, when he can simply ignore it? Instead, this bill was aimed at allowing federal research funds to be spent on certain kinds of stem cell research.
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Jul 192006
Argh! So the House voted to prevent the courts from considering the issue of whether the words “under G-d” in the pledge of allegiance is unconstitutional. I happen to be opposed to the phrase “under G-d” in the pledge. I have the utmost respect for religious freedom, and if a person wants to say “under G-d” when reciting the pledge, that’s his/her priority. But to force people to say “under G-d” is a violation of the rights of a religious minority – just as if the phrase were to be “one nation, rejecting the notion of a G-d”. I would be just as opposed to that phrase, which also violates separation of church and state.
But my personal beliefs about whether this phrase should be there or not is irrelevant. For Congress to try and prevent the courts from ruling on an issue with a bill is about as egregious a violation of checks and balances as I can think of. After all, what’s to stop them from putting a “and courts can’t rule on this” footer to every bill they pass? And it passed by nearly 100 votes. That’s sickening. What’s happening to this country?
Jul 172006
Once again, Israel is at war with its neighbors.
I won’t play the blame game, except to say that the only innocents are the children. There is no moral high-ground in this war, and everyone is partially at fault. Hamas and Hezbollah are at fault for engaging in acts of terrorism against Israel. Israel is at fault for responding to those acts with ever increasing violence. The Lebanese, Palestinian, and Israeli people are all at fault for electing these regimes and these leaders, who believe that escalating violence will solve their problems. The UN and the international community are at fault for their inaction on this brewing conflict for all these years. The US is at fault not only for its inaction, but for our recent encouragement of Israeli policies that assume that violence should be met with increased violence. And heck, if you really want a scapegoat, the Roman and British Empires are at fault for creating the necessary conditions for the religious conflict in the first place.
But placing blame here doesn’t get us anywhere. Now there is war, and the only response to war is for us to pray for, and push for, peace. In the meantime, here are a couple simple facts of life that everyone needs to remember:
- You cannot declare war on an elected political party without declaring war on the people who voted for that party and on the nation that they govern. Like it or not, Hamas and Hezbollah are elected political groups, and Israel’s attacks on them are attacks on Palestine and Lebanon, respectively. As much as Israel and the Bush Administration wants to portray this as a fight between Hezbollah and Israel, Israel didn’t invade Hezbollah; they invaded Lebanon.
- People bear responsibility for the actions of the political parties and leaders that they elect. The Lebanese people are responsible for the actions of Hezbollah, the Palestinian people are responsible for Hamas, and the Israeli people are responsible for the actions of the Israeli cabinet. For that matter, the American people are responsible for the actions of the Bush Administration; the war in Iraq is our fault as much as it is his.
- Violence begets violence. Hard-line tactics on one side will result in hard-line tactics on the other. You cannot declare war to find peace or invade your neighbors to find security. War breeds extremes, whereas peace requires compromise. War breeds hatred, whereas peace requires understanding. War breeds fear, whereas peace requires trust. Ultimately this war will continue until one side or the other decides to take a leap of faith and put down their guns first.
Finally, as horrible and tragic as this war is, and as depressing as the situation in the Middle East has become, remember that most people, most of the time, even in the most horrific circumstances, are fundamentally peaceful and trusting. Despite the impressions given by our history books, incidents of peace and trust will always outnumber the incidents of hatred and war. Peace is the historical norm, even in the Middle East.
This may be my favorite headline of all time:
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