Guest Contribution

BUZZFLASH GUEST COMMENTARY

Packin’ Pistols for God and Country: NRA Christians stake claim on patriotism and the America
 
By Bill Berkowitz 
If you don’t quite get that for many in this country that the connection between guns and God is as American as burgers and fries, baseball and beer, and July 4th and fireworks, you should have been at the New Bethel Church in Louisville, Kentucky, on Saturday, June 27, where Pastor Ken Pagano welcomed more than 200 people – most of them packing guns (albeit unloaded) -- to an event called the “Open Carry Celebration.”
 
According to the New Bethel Church website, the “Open Carry Celebration” was held on a Saturday instead of a Sunday, so that it was clear that it was “not a church worship service, where the focus is on Jesus and our responsibility to Him. Rather,” Pagano, a former Marine weapons instructor, pointed out, “this is merely a church-hosted event, similar to any other event that any other church may do to celebrate their heritage.”

Technorati Tags: Guest Contribution Guns Religion The American Way Jesus

A BUZZFLASH GUEST CONTRIBUTION
by Michael Winship

California should just be done with it and rename the entire state "Neverland Ranch."

This serves several useful purposes. It would be the ultimate tribute to Michael Jackson, pleasing his most ardent and bereft fans. Further validate the state's Cloud Cuckoo, fairy tale reputation, thus probably promoting additional, revenue-generating tourism. Stand as an accurate metaphor for the state government's airheaded inability to cope with its current financial disaster.

On Wednesday, Governor Schwarzenegger announced that California's deficit has grown to $26.3 billion and proposed billions of additional cuts to education. He declared a fiscal emergency, triggering an automatic 45-day deadline for the state legislature to come up with a plan to cover the shortfall and balance the budget. If that fails, they're banned from considering any other legislation until they come up with a solution.

Technorati Tags: Guest Contribution Michael Winship Arnold Schwarznegger New York California state legislature deficit

A BUZZFLASH GUEST CONTRIBUTION
by Christopher Flavelle, David Epstein and Michael Grabell of ProPublica

Just how fast stimulus money is getting out the door to states has been a running partisan squabble of late. Democrats see a raging river. Republicans see a pool of molasses.

But the Obama administration seemed to get one up last week with the announcement that it had reached a closely watched milestone: All states and territories had obligated at least half the highway money they got in the stimulus bill -- and they did it before the deadline.

The announcement could have used an asterisk.

Although states technically met the June 29 deadline laid out in the law [1], 13 still hadn't obligated 50 percent of their total highway funds at the time of the announcement, according to our analysis [2] of Department of Transportation data. Nevada, for one, had committed only 35 percent.

Technorati Tags: Guest Contribution

A BUZZFLASH GUEST CONTRIBUTION
by Jill Richardson of Commonweal Institute

It seems fitting that the same week we celebrate the independence of our Nation, the House passed historic climate change legislation. In theory, this bill should bring us closer to the goals of oil independence and freedom from the disastrous future of a warming, melting planet. If America is to prosper in the 21st century, then we must take immediate action to reduce our role in causing the climate crisis. And yet, the bill left those of us who care about our shared environment shaking our heads. Is the Waxman-Markey bill is even slightly better for the planet than the status quo, or will it pave the way to increased, legalized pollution? Perhaps the most tragic part of the bill was the compromise with agribusiness interests that was required to secure its passage through the Agriculture committee.

Agribusiness likes to claim that "farmers are the first environmentalists" - a statement that should be true. Sadly, the large corporate interests that drive the agribusiness lobby like to hide behind the image of the American family farmer. And while the American family farmer may in fact be an environmentalist, the new climate change bill further entrenches the status quo of an agricultural system based on unsustainable usage of oil, water, and soil.

Technorati Tags: Guest Contribution

A BUZZFLASH GUEST CONTRIBUTION
by Nikolas Kozloff

Ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya, who was overthrown in a military coup on Sunday, is irate about U.S. interventionism in his country. That's not too surprising in light of the history. For years, successive U.S. diplomats in Tegucigalpa have cultivated close ties with right-wing elements in Honduras while seeking to head off progressive change. If Zelaya is ever reinstated as President, the U.S. will have to work hard to erase Hondurans' bitter memory of belligerent American ambassadors.

Consider for a moment the case of John Negroponte, U.S. Ambassador to Honduras from 1981-1985. Negroponte worked in his post at the height of the U.S.-funded Contra war against the Sandinista regime in Nicaragua. At the time, Honduras served as a vital base for the Contra rebel army. Negroponte played a significant role in assisting the Contras, though human rights groups criticized him for ignoring human rights abuses committed by Honduran death squads that were funded and partially trained by the Central Intelligence Agency. Indeed, when Negroponte served as ambassador, his building in Tegucigalpa became one of the largest nerve centers of the CIA in Latin America with a tenfold increase in personnel.

The authorities built an airbase at El Aguacate for the Contras, which was reportedly used as a detention facility where torture occurred. The area also served as a burial ground for 185 dissidents whose remains were only uncovered in 2001. Jack Binns, Negroponte's predecessor in Tegucigalpa and a Carter appointee, maintains that when he handed over power to Negroponte, he gave the newcomer a full briefing about human rights abuses committed by the military. Negroponte denies having any knowledge about such occurrences.

Technorati Tags: Guest Contribution Nikolas Kozloff Venezuela Honduras coup Obama Zelaya

A BUZZFLASH GUEST CONTRIBUTION
by Nikolas Kozloff

Read or listen to the mainstream media these days and you get the impression that Sunday's coup in Honduras was all about a simple disagreement over the constitutionality of presidential term limits. But as the coup unfolds, it's becoming clear that the authorities want something more: the restoration of Honduras's conservative political order and an end to President Manuel Zelaya's independent foreign policy that had reached out to leftist countries such as Cuba and Venezuela.

As part of their effort to consolidate power officials have moved quickly to restrain the free flow of information, in particular by cracking down on progressive leaning media. Only TV stations sympathetic to the newly installed coup regime have been left alone while others have been shut down. The climate of repression is similar to what we have seen elsewhere in Latin America in recent years. Specifically, there are eerie parallels to the April 2002 coup in Venezuela when the briefly installed right-wing government imposed a media blackout to further its own political ends.

Perhaps somewhat tellingly, the Honduran army cut off local broadcasts of the Telesur news network that is sponsored by leftist governments including Venezuela, Uruguay, Argentina, and Cuba. Adriana Sivori, Telesur's correspondent in Tegucigalpa, was in her hotel room speaking on the telephone to her network when 10 soldiers arrived with rifles drawn. The men unplugged Telesur's editing equipment in an effort to halt the network's coverage of protests in support of ousted President Manuel Zelaya.

Technorati Tags: Guest Contribution Nikolas Kozloff Venezuela Honduras coup Obama Zelaya

A BUZZFLASH GUEST CONTRIBUTION
by Nikolas Kozloff

Which do you prefer, the official version of U.S. foreign policy in Latin America or the more hidden story? If you were reading The New York Times, you probably got the impression that the military coup that just took place in the small Central American nation of Honduras had everything to do with President Manuel Zelaya's bid to extend presidential term limits. In a superficial explanation of events, correspondent Elisabeth Malkin wrote "The military offered no public explanation for its actions, but the Supreme Court issued a statement saying that the military had acted to defend the law" against Zelaya who had spoken out against the constitution.

In Honduras, presidents are limited to a single four-year term but Zelaya had called for a constitutional referendum which, he hoped, would change the law so he could stand for re-election. The move, however, inflamed critics who claimed the President had no right to try to change the law. When the military refused to help organize the vote, Zelaya fired a top military commander. Things escalated from there and on Sunday, the military removed Zelaya from power. Thus goes the official Times version, which gives the impression that the political conflict in Honduras boils down to a simple disagreement about the limits of presidential power.

When reading the Times and its coup coverage in Latin America, a healthy degree of skepticism is in order. Let's not forget the case of the 2002 coup in Venezuela that briefly removed President Hugo Chávez from power. At the time, the Times shamelessly parroted the official White House version of events, writing "Venezuelan democracy is no longer threatened by a would-be dictator...[because] the military intervened and handed power to a respected business leader [Pedro Carmona, the "dictator for a day"]." A scant two days later following popular protests, Chávez was back in power and the Times was forced to apologize. "Forcibly unseating a democratically elected leader, no matter how bad he may be, is never something to cheer," the Times wrote begrudgingly.

Technorati Tags: Guest Contribution Nikolas Kozloff Venezuela Honduras coup Obama Zelaya

A BUZZFLASH GUEST CONTRIBUTION
by Nikolas Kozloff

Could the diplomatic thaw between Venezuela and the United States be coming to an abrupt end? At the recent Summit of the Americas held in Port of Spain, Barack Obama shook Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez's hand and declared that he would pursue a less arrogant foreign policy towards Latin America. Building on that goodwill, Venezuela and the United States agreed to restore their ambassadors late last week. The diplomatic overtures provided a stark contrast to the miserable state of relations during the Bush years: just nine months ago Venezuela expelled the U.S. envoy in a diplomatic tussle. At the time, Chávez said he kicked the U.S. ambassador out to demonstrate solidarity with left ally Bolivia, which had also expelled a top American diplomat after accusing him of blatant political interference in the Andean nation's internal affairs.

Whatever goodwill existed last week however could now be undone by turbulent political events in Honduras. Following a military coup d'etat in the small Central American nation on Sunday, Chávez accused the U.S. of helping to orchestrate the overthrow of Honduran President Manuel Zelaya. "Behind these soldiers are the Honduran bourgeois, the rich who converted Honduras into a Banana Republic, into a political and military base for North American imperialism," Chávez said. The Venezuelan leader urged the Honduran military to return Zelaya to power and even threatened military action against the coup regime if Venezuela's ambassador was killed or local troops entered the Venezuelan Embassy. Reportedly, Honduran soldiers beat the ambassador and left him on the side of a road in the course of the military coup. Tensions have ratcheted up to such an extent that Chávez has now placed his armed forces on alert.

Technorati Tags: Guest Contribution Nikolas Kozloff Venezuela Honduras coup Obama Zelaya

A BUZZFLASH GUEST CONTRIBUTION
by Michael Winship

Being a total history geek, I confess there's almost nothing as entertaining to me as a good historic house tour. It's a great way to get a feel for how someone from the past lived his or her life. I realize that this nerdish interest would seem to indicate that conversely, I have no life of my own, but bear with me.

An hour or two spent at Teddy Roosevelt's Sagamore Hill home on Long Island, or Mark Twain's rambling riverboat of a house in Hartford, Connecticut, or even Chartwell, Winston Churchill's home in the Kentish countryside of England, is an ideal portal into the mind of an historic personage and the times in which they lived.

A large part of a recent weekend in Chicago was spent visiting Frank Lloyd Wright's home and office in nearby Oak Park, Illinois, and the mansion of a 19th century industrial tycoon whose daughter made miniature dollhouse recreations of homicide scenes, published in a collection titled, "The Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death." You can't make this stuff up.

Luckily, my girlfriend Pat and my sister Patricia are as nerd-like as I am, so on a beautiful spring Saturday last month, while visiting my sister upstate, we drove over to the home of William Henry Seward in Auburn, NY.

Technorati Tags: Guest Contribution Michael Winship Obama Iran Sarah Palin Seward Alaska

A BUZZFLASH GUEST CONTRIBUTION
by Co-Editor of ThePoliticalCarnival.blogspot.com

Major Barry Wingard is an attorney who represents an innocent Kuwaiti detainee named Fayiz al-Kandari. Fayiz has been in imprisoned -- and abused -- for 7 ½ years. In Fayiz's opinion, and I trust him over most who have never been a guest at Hotel Gitmo, conditions there are worse than they were before. To add salt to his many wounds, Fayiz is still waiting for his day in court.

How in the world did a nice, well-to-do, well-educated guy such as Fayiz end up in Gitmo? He was in Afghanistan doing charity work.  He gave, they took... his freedom.  95% of the prisoners captured in Afghanistan were not captured by American forces. Fayiz was swept up and sold to our guys by bounty hunters. He had always considered America an ally, but he was in for a rude awakening.

The Guantanamo Bay Resort is not the swanky new digs it's been cracked up to be. After President Obama was elected, the perception was that Gitmo would be closed, and things would improve. But Barry feels that the opposite has happened. How bad is it? This bad:

Attorney-client privilege is now a thing of the past. His client's letters have been opened, which, believe it or not, didn't happen under the Bush Administration. No, I'm not kidding.

Technorati Tags: Guest Contribution Barry Wingard Gitmo Guantanamo Cuba President Barack Obama al Qaeda