3 Votes for Obama

Dear Mr. President,

Yesterday I had conversations with two ardent Democrats. Neither one was aware of your Kill List or that every Tuesday you personally choose who goes on it, who will be targeted for assassination this week. One person physically recoiled when I mentioned this. He thought a moment and then opined that probably anyone with your power in this situation would do the same, shrugged it off and shifted the conversation to domestic policies. When I brought up the Kill List to the other person, she said, “I don’t believe you.” This time I was shocked; this is a person who watches the news on TV and reads the local paper. When I said the New York Times had a 3-page article detailing the process, she said, “Just because it’s in the paper doesn’t mean it’s true.” My brother too, doesn’t believe there’s a Kill List or that you personally choose who lives and who dies this week. “You have a vivid imagination,” he says. Here are three votes for Obama. They all have the Obama religion; they’re all in denial. No different than deniers of global warming, they reject facts that do not fit their beliefs. They cannot and will not accept the enormity of your betrayal. They cannot believe Obama would eliminate the most fundamental tenet of justice: that a person is innocent until proven guilty, or that an American president would pursue a policy of summary executions not only of foreigners but of his own citizens, or that you can and will incarcerate anyone anywhere indefinitely without trial or legal redress, and that all this is justified through memos so secret that your InJustice Department will not even acknowledge their existence let alone reveal their contents. The man we elected in 2008 was a myth, someone we created in our imaginations out of desperation for peace and justice.. The reality was that we elected a liar, a cold-blooded killer, and a war criminal who abides by no law but his own. But people believe what they want to believe and the Democrats are no different than Republicans; they remain true to the myth even if you don’t. No Hope, no Change, no Promises You Can Believe In this time around. Stay the course,is your plea this year and I’ve heard that old chestnut a time or two. It’s always said out of desperation when the path the incumbent has put us on is clearly a disaster. No thanks, Mr. President. I’m not drinking the Kool-Aid this time around and I don’t want a war criminal in the White House. I’m voting for Jill Stein for President.

Permission to Engage

Dear Mr. President,

A documentary I watched called Permission to Engage, by Shuchen Tan, dissects frame by frame the video Bradley Manning allegedly sent to WikiLeaks that shows the cold-blooded killing of Iraqi civilians by a U.S. Army helicopter gunship. Manning has spent two years in military prisons for his alleged crime, a year of that in solitary confinement without a trial. Only in the past few months has his pre-trial hearing begun and it is already clear the military kangaroo court will be finding him guilty, suppressing exculpatory evidence and denying testimony from witnesses who might weaken the government’s case. Tan went to Iraq and tracked down some victims’ families, showing their pain and rage at the injustice visited on them. She also tracked down one of the soldiers on the ground that day, the man who pulled two horribly wounded children from a bullet-riddled van. Her documentary includes a fascinating analysis by that ex-soldier of the context and exactly what happened. As one who experienced the war in Iraq firsthand, he went through frame by frame explaining how the group of men might have been mistaken for insurgents up to the point where the helicopter crew, requesting “permission to engage,” lied about the color and type of vehicle. They described a truck used in an insurgent attack earlier in the day, clearly not the van. That, the ex-soldier said, was when they crossed the line. That made it a war crime. But he also recounted the attitude of his sergeant toward the killing of Iraqi children: “they’re just future terrorists.” The callousness and disregard for life that starts at the top, in your office, is appalling and chilling. What that soldier, the narrator, finally understood is that we were the terrorists in Iraq. We are also the terrorists in Afghanistan, Mr. President, and Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia, the Philippines, Mexico, the list goes on. Everywhere you fly your drones, fire your missiles, commit extrajudicial assassinations, more haters of America are created and we are less safe, less free, and less human. You have been a disaster for America, Mr. President, you are destroying the very soul of our nation and it will, one day come back to haunt us. I may not be around to see it but I hope you are. I hope you and your evil-doer twins, the Bushes, the Cheneys, the Rumsfelds, the Holders, all one day stand in the dock to answer for your war crimes and atrocities against those who suffered at the hand of Imperialist America.

F, F and F

Competitor in Chief. That’s the title of an article in today’s New York Times. It’s pretty revealing about who you are and how you view yourself. The best in everything: a better speechwriter than your speechwriters, know more about any policy than your policy advisors, the best at handshaking, doodling, reading to kids, the list is endless. You see yourself as the most interesting and smartest guy in the room (my mother called this Getting the BigHead). You crave being judged by the American people for the job you’ve done and that will come on November 6. Truth is, you may well win because of the inept, bumbling, out-of-touch competition you’ve got in Romney/Ryan, and because most people still suffer from the Lesser of Two Evils syndrome, but there’s a lot of discontent out here on the hustings, Mr. President, so don’t start counting those chickens yet. The article says you give yourself a solid B+ as president but I don’t see it that way. I’d say you way overestimate yourself. In fact I don’t see a single B+ in anything you’ve done. I see nothing but solid Fs. The war in Afghanistan: F. Expanded drone wars in Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia and other places: F. Kill Lists: F. Targeted Assassinations: F. Extending the Patriot Act: F. Keeping Guantanamo open: F. Not prosecuting or investigating those responsible for torture and other atrocities during the so-called Global War on Terror: F. Suppressing Whistleblowers: F. Torture and political incarceration of Bradley Manning: F. Transparency in government: F. Regulating banks and Wall Street: F. Healthcare for all: F. Upholding the Constitution: F. (For example, signing into law the NDAA of 2012.) Helping homeowners in trouble because of bankster excesses: F. Keeping campaign promises: F. Telling the truth: F. Really, Mr. President, I can’t think of a single B+, not even a C or D, just a long string of Fs: Failure to Perform. I think you got a BigHead and an inflated view of yourself. A little humility goes a long way, my mother used to say, and it sounds like you could use some humility. You may expect high marks from the American people, but don’t count on me or anyone I know. You lied to us in 2008, betrayed us in 2009, reneged on every campaign promise and did nothing to reverse the disastrous policies of your predecessor: F, F and F. There must be something in the air or the Kool-Aid back there in DC-Land to make you think you’re a B+. In my book you remain the worst president in history.

Recording Evil

Dear Mr. President,

I’m told these letters are a waste of time. My brother says they won’t do a damn bit of good. A 12-step program to get out of the Lesser of Two Evils syndrome advises, “Cut off all contact with Obama, Holder, Clinton and Pelosi. No more phone calls or writing letters. They are aware of what they are doing and they just don't care what you think.” I agree my letters aren’t going to make a bit of difference—if you even see one; no response to a single one of my latest 73 letters. Of course, I didn’t expect my letter writing campaign would make a difference but that’s not the point. The point is to keep reminding myself that you’re not the lesser of two evils, that you’re the more effective of two evils, and to record the evil you do in our name: the expanded wars, the kill lists, the targeted assassinations—all war crimes—and the injustice you condone: the incarceration of whistleblowers like Bradley Manning, the suppression of dissent and information you deem unfavorable like your pursuit of WikiLeaks and Julian Assange, the incompetence, stupidity and waste of the wars on terror, drugs, women, the middle class and all the other unjust wars you pursue. You’re in campaign mode now, ready to accept the nomination of the Democratic Party. Your slogans, “Forward” and “Help Me Finish the Job” make me cringe. Here’s what you’ve accomplished so far: 13,000 American killed or wounded in Afghanistan; 20,000 Afghan civilians killed or wounded; $614 billion spent on the war (67% of the entire cost of the war since 2001). This is a senseless waste of lives and money that has accomplished nothing but violence at home and abroad, hatred of America that will last for generations, a betrayal of America and the destruction of democracy, freedom and justice. You, Mr. President, are the worst President in history. You have consciously gutted the Constitution, ignored the rule of law and committed war crimes with disregard, no different than any petty tyrant anywhere. The people you finger for assassination, the authorization you give to fire a Hellfire missile into a vehicle without even knowing for sure who’s in it, are all war crimes (the latest yesterday, 8 people killed in Yemen, 3 of them women and the terrorist leader you were after wasn’t in the vehicle). You are no better than James Holmes in Aurora or Jared Loughner in Tucson or Anders Breivik in Norway. You are a war criminal, a mass murderer a disgrace to the office, to the country, to humanity.

You Da' Man!

Dear Mr. President,

A 7-year-old girl, a 12-year old boy beheaded because family members joined the Afghan police or Army to fight the Taliban. A suicide bomber and a truck bomb kills at least 12 and wounds dozens near a U.S./NATO base in central Afghanistan. An ex-Marine kills 2 co-workers with an assault rifle, then shoots himself with his handgun. A U.S. Army deserter, disillusioned after a tour in Iraq, flees to Canada with her husband and 4 kids and now, after 4 years, the Army wants her extradited so they can prosecute her. A report detailing the security failures at the Y-12 nuclear weapons factory in Oak Ridge after the July break-in by an 82-year old nun and her two male accomplices, 63 and 57, using nothing more than bolt-cutters and hammers, not only shows the incompetence of the outsourced security and management of the plant, but the government’s stupidity and complicity by cutting back funding for security so equipment cannot be replaced and patrols have to be decreased. (And the scapegoat is the guard who used common sense stating the 3 activists were obviously no risk since they had sought him out and surrendered voluntarily and there was no need to cuff them and treat them like militants or saboteurs.) The news from Afghanistan is not good. The fallout from the war is not good. The billions we waste every month on security that secures nothing and no one is not good. Mr. President, it’s time to think about something besides your kill lists and drone strikes and quit pretending the war on terror and the war on drugs and all the other wars are doing good for humanity or democracy or freedom and start earning that Nobel Peace Prize you mistakenly won back in 2009. Not to mention the election you won in 2008 under false pretenses. Time to keep your promises and end the drone strikes, tear up the kill lists, burn the nominee profiles, pack up the troops and bring them home. From everywhere, not just Afghanistan, but Yemen, Somalia and the rest of Africa, Europe, Australia, Asia, everywhere. Eliminate the CIA, Homeland Security, the NSA, the ATF, the DEA and all the other useless agencies that do nothing but promote violence, fear, and injustice, and cause worldwide misery and hatred of bully America. With the peace dividend from a peace agenda, invest in green energy, infrastructure, free healthcare, free education pre-school to graduate school and give us back our country and our freedom. Come on, Mr. President, do the right thing. You da’ man!