Think Humanely

The latest installment of Hypocrisy Watch is once again brought to you courtesy of a conservative “values” forum. Rep. Trent Franks stood up and called Obama “an enemy of humanity.” Watch below:

Maybe you agree with Franks and his fanatical opposition to abortion. Fine. But where the hell does this guy get off calling anyone “an enemy of humanity?” Let’s look at his record. Below you’ll find a list of some of the things that he has voted against:

● Paycheck Fairness Act
● Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which would penalize employers for pay discrimination against women
● CHIP Reauthorization Act, which would expand health care coverage for children
● Extension of Unemployment Benefits
● Federal Student Aid Programs
● Cash for Clunkers
● Trade-in Vouchers for Fuel Efficient Cars
● Hate Crimes Expansion
● National Volunteer Program Expansion
● Food Safety Regulations
● Mortgage Restructuring in Bankruptcy
● District of Columbia Voting Rights Act of 20007
● Voting Rights Reauthorization Act, the pesky little bill that seeks to protect minorities from voter intimidation and other illegalities
● establishing an Office of Congressional Ethics
● GI Bill
● Funding for Midwest Flood Cleanup
● Iraq Related Provisions such as Troop Withdrawal, a Permanent Base Ban, and Limiting Interrogation Techniques
● a ban against arresting and suing patients who use medical marijuana
● College Student Relief Act of 2007
● Student Loan Forgiveness for Teachers
● the Ready to Teach Act of 2003 (one of only 17 people to vote against)
● Sexual Orientation Employment Nondiscrimination Act

So let’s recap: He’s not only against but actively tries to obstruct equal pay for women, increasing health coverage for children, making it easier for people to buy environmentally safer cars, regulating unsafe food practices, making it easier for people to get out of bankruptcy, extending suffrage to Americans and protecting minorities from voter discrimination, benefits for veterans, ending a war that has claimed up to 1 million innocent lives, ending torture, making higher education more affordable, ending work-place discrimination against homosexuals, and rewarding people for becoming teachers.

Say what you will about abortion, but for this particular individual to call anyone “an enemy of humanity” is a fucking joke. Franks, you are a disgusting individual and belong in the ninth circle of hell, frozen for all eternity.

Thanks to Godless American for bringing this to my attention. Below you’ll find a video of a mother who, despite health insurance, was unable to protect herself and her children from a debilitating blindness.

“I still believe we have the best health care system in the world.” – Rep. Mary Bono Mack

“We do start with the notion, however, that we have the best health care in the world.” – Sen. McConnell July 21, 2009

“But the best health care in the world is still here” – Susan Estrich, syndicated columnist, 2009

“No one would disagree that the United States currently offers the best health care in the world.” – Alabama Policy Institute

“I have proposed common sense health care reforms including HR 3400 that address the problems that exist without destroying the things that make our medical care the best in the world,” – U.S. Rep. Steve Scalise, September 2009

“Let’s not destroy a system that works well for most Americans.” – Alan B. Miller chairman and CEO of Universal Health Services Inc

“There is no crisis […] The crisis in health care here has been manufactured.” – Rush Limbaugh

America’s system is “the best healthcare system in the world”. – Glenn Beck

“I think all of us know that we’ve got the best health care in the world existing here in this country.” – Rep. Clyburn

“We’re wasting a lot of money on health care, yet we have the best health care in the world.” – Sen Grassley Aug. 2009

“We still deliver some of the best health care in the world. Let’s not throw out the baby with the bathwater.” – Gov. Jindal, July 2009

“We have the best health care in the world.” – Sen. Coburn Aug. 2009

“Democrats and Republicans understand that we do have the best health care system in the world.” – Sen. Boehner, Sep 2009

Below you’ll find a powerful video – as evidenced by the crowd being brought to tears – from Kseniya Simonova, a 24-year-old Ukrainian woman. The video is a tribute to the loss and destruction of human life in Ukraine during World War II. Ukraine had more casualties than any other European nation. 1 in 4 of its people were lost. More than two million were taken to Germany to serve as slaves. Roughly 28,000 villages and 700 cities were destroyed. And as is the case with all wars, there was also a tragic cultural toll. Andrew Gregorovich notes

when Hitler’s German Army started its retreat from Ukraine, orders were again given to loot and remove to Germany all art works (including a Rembrandt self-portrait), folk art collections, rare books, engravings, libraries, sculptures, and museum collections. These treasures totaled in the hundreds of thousands of items. The cultural wealth of Ukraine was nearly stripped from the country. According to Soviet sources a total of 151 museums, 62 drama theaters and 600 movie theaters were destroyed by the Germans.

Anything that could not be moved was to be destroyed and many libraries were dumped outside and burned. The German occupation destroyed a total of 19,200 libraries in Ukraine.

For those unfamiliar with some of the specifics or cultural references made in the video, here is a succinct summary by Tracy McVeigh in her article on this impressive woman:

Simonova’s sand story portrays the human loss after the German invasion in 1941. The opening scene shows a couple sitting on a bench under a starry sky. Warplanes appear and the happy scene is obliterated to be replaced by crying faces. Then a baby arrives and the woman smiles again, but war and chaos return and a young woman becomes an old widow, before the image turns into an obelisk – the Ukrainian monument to its Unknown Soldier.

Note that this video is taken from the television show Ukraine’s Got Talent. Also note that she won. Try to imagine for a moment a contestant on the American version of this program not only being allowed to detail the loss of life in Iraq or Afghanistan, but receiving praise from judges, becoming a huge audience hit, and actually winning – especially when previous finalists and winners have included a juggling act, clothes-changing magic act, an Elvis impersonator, and a country singer covering an Aerosmith song.

Thanks goes to Glenn Greenwald, from whom I first learned of Kseniya Simonova.

George Lakoff, Professor of Linguistics at UC Berkeley and author of several books, including Whose Freedom?: The Battle over America’s Most Important Idea, recently wrote a piece calling for amending California’s Constitution.

“I have sent to the Attorney General,” Lakoff writes, “a ballot proposition for the 2010 ballot called The California Democracy Act, whose content is the following:All legislative action on revenue and budget must be determined by a majority vote.”

The proposition would alter two words in the Constitution, changing “two-thirds” to “majority” in two different places. While linguistically simple, the political and economic ramifications are profound. Lakoff notes, “The two-thirds rules have an anti-democratic effect. Our legislature is currently under minority rule. One-third plus one — only 34% — of either the Assembly or Senate can block the will of the majority until their demands are met.”

Only narcissists who find themselves out of power (in this case, Republicans) could possibly justify such a blatantly anti-democratic system. The GOP and what they stand for had its chance in a statewide election to win over a majority of Californians. And they failed. Think whatever you will of California Democrats but when given the choice between Democrats and Republicans, the citizenry were clear in their preference for the former. So what does the GOP do? The exact same thing that they are doing on the national level. In the US Congress, Republicans are holding health care reform hostage by threat of a filibuster, meaning that even though a majority of our elected representatives support reform and will vote for it, the GOP is forcing a supermajority, or two-thirds, to pass any bill. Where is the democracy in that, especially when Democrats ran on the promise to reform the health care system and gained significant votes because of it?

Lakoff writes:

Changing the vote requirement to a majority for budget and revenue will ensure that California’s budget can meet the state’s needs and be passed on time. One sentence can end economic uncertainty and provide for an improved credit rating, for payment of our bills with money instead of IOUs, and will bring stability to our schools, nursing homes and universities. One sentence can make California a well-run state again.

There are undoubtedly those who think that the two-thirds requirement is for the best, that it will protect against Democratic excess and that the requirement isn’t actually that big of a problem. This latest budget disaster is merely an aberration. Such people are grossly ignorant.

First, the California budget has been late 19 of the past 23 years. This isn’t an aberration. It’s an inevitability. Second, the whole point of a democracy, assuming that our politicians even believe in the concept, is that when politicians abuse their power or lose our confidence, we will vote them out of office. If Democrats create budgets that the people largely oppose, then Democrats will lose seats. Except our politicians don’t believe in democracy. If they did, they’d likely take the following statistics from The Public Policy Institute of California into consideration before holding up budget after budget after budget:

● 68% disapprove of the performance of the California Legislature

● 71% think California is going in the wrong direction

● 75% think budget is a big problem and another 20% consider it somewhat of a problem

● 47% want to change the budget process to a 55% majority vote, compared to only 41% who oppose it

No other state is run by such a minority,” writes Lakoff. “In no other state can a ruthless minority cause the chaos, disruption, pain, and near-bankruptcy that our state has suffered […] Minority rule is closing California. State parks: closed. Schools: closed. Fire departments: closed. Nursing homes: closed. Medical clinics: closed. Libraries: closed.”

Are Republicans and acquiescent Democrats ready to let go of minority rule, a selfless but democratic act that will benefit the vast majority of Californians and help remedy an economy and educational system that have fallen into disarray and disaster? No. They’d rather wield power than promote democracy.

I recently wrote about Rep. Jerrold Nadler introducing the Respect for Marriage Act, which will afford same-sex couples the same rights and opportunities as heterosexual couples. Nadler’s bill already has 94 co-sponsors and public support for the bill continues to grow.
Take this quasi-confessional from Rep. Earl Blumenauer, a Democrat who helped vote DOMA into law:

On July 12, 1996, I cast the worst vote of my political career. Having served in public office since 1973, that says something. While I’ve made other mistakes, this was different: it was a deliberate vote that I knew to be poor public policy and was against my values. I’ve been a strong champion of civil rights and protections based on sexual orientation since I chaired the first legislative hearing on anti-discrimination legislation in 1973. Even worse, this vote was cast after careful consideration.
[…]
I long ago recognized and acknowledged the mistake I made, and I have spent time understanding the problems in my thinking and analysis. It has resulted in frank and important conversations with many gay and lesbian friends, and if anything it has strengthened my commitment to the cause of banning discrimination based on sexual orientation and has made me a better lawmaker.
[…]
I will work to make sure that my colleagues who once, for whatever reason, joined me in supporting this ill-advised measure take this opportunity to correct their record and eliminate an injustice.

The worst vote of his 36 year political career. It’s not a coincidence that his acknowledgement is eerily reminiscent of the one made by Senator Byrd, who has publically stated his regret over opposing the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Civil rights for one group of people are no more important than they are for other groups, no matter how vilified and marginalized the group might be. I noted here, when discussing the idiocy of Carrie Prejean, that opposition to same-sex marriage is fundamentally no different than opposing Loving v. Virginia, the Supreme Court ruling that declared it unconstitutional to deny the right of marriage to interracial couples. One of the so-called legitimate arguments against interracial marriage common at the time? It was unnatural. God forbid it. Sound familiar? It’s also no different than claiming that suffrage should again be denied women because they are inherently less deserving of the right to vote, due to their irrationality and lesser intellect.

Consider what DOMA does:

Since its passage in 1996, the Defense of Marriage Act has discriminated against LGBT Americans by excluding federal benefits from same-sex partners who have been legally married in states that recognize their marriage. As a result, married LGBT couples are not provided equal treatment under the law. Specifically, they are prevented from filing joint tax returns; receiving spousal, parental or surviving spouse benefits under social security; taking unpaid leave to care for a sick or injured partner; or receiving the same retirement benefits as heterosexual couples. Since 1996, eight states and the District of Columbia have granted same-sex couples equal access to state programs, but those couples remain excluded from the same rights under federal law.

There are a total of 1,338 Federal benefits that are being denied to a whole class of American citizens. This is why not only eventually overturning DOMA is so important, but also coming out in public and taking the ethical, moral, and principled stance against a bigoted, unconstitutional law. This is also why we need to make sure that we put people capable and willing to do this into a position of influence.

Alexi Giannoulias is a candidate for US Senate in Illinois, hoping to replace the seat once held by President Obama. Joseph Erbentraut writes , “Giannoulias surprised voters last week when he announced an extensive LGBT rights platform that included everything from his support for legalizing marriage for gays and lesbians to the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” Here is what the candidate had to say to EDGE:

“I believe that all Americans should have the same freedoms and share the same responsibilities, including the freedom to marry and the responsibilities that come with it,” Giannoulias told EDGE. “Allowing committed gay and lesbian couples the same rights as heterosexual couples is the fair and right thing to do. It’s about equality, individual liberties and protections, which reflect the fundamental values that this country was founded on.”

“This is something I believe in,” Giannoulias said. “These aren’t special rights, they are equal rights. Loving, same-sex couples deserve to be treated no differently in the eyes of the law than opposite-sex couples. It’s not fair to deny some long-term, committed couples and their families the protections that others enjoy.”

You know when you live in a troubled and disturbed world when such obviously correct, ethical, constitutional position “surprises” people, and earns one admiration. Imagine congratulating a politician for coming out in public and announcing that it’s wrong to beat women, or that it’s completely offensive to fire someone from their job because they’re black. Yet that is, fundamentally, the world, and the country, that we find ourselves in. The only realization more depressing than that, is this: polling shows that Giannoulias trails the Republican candidate, and we all know what the Republican’s position is on these issues.

You can find out more about Giannoulias and ways to support him, by visiting his website.