The Sound of Inevitability

If you believe the mainstream media, with the exception of Hillary Clinton, all the other candidates should just fold their tent and go home. This kind of rhetoric reminds me of a scene from the movie The Matrix. In the scene I’m thinking of, Agent Smith is holding our hero Neo in front of an oncoming train.

Agent Smith: "You hear that Mr. Anderson? That is the sound of inevitability... It is the sound of your death... Goodbye, Mr. Anderson..."

Neo: "My name... is Neo."

And with that Neo jumps away, leaving Agent Smith in front of the train. I’m just guessing here, but I’d say that it didn’t turn out like Agent Smith had expected it to.

Elections also have a funny way of not turning out the way that everyone thought they would. Just ask Howard Dean. In the Fall of 2003 he was on the front cover of Time Magazine…and Newsweek…and several other magazines.

A few short months later, he was only famous for two things – a rebel yell and the biggest implosion of a promising politician in several years.

The press seems to have decided that Hillary Clinton can’t be stopped. Her election to the presidency seems to be “inevitable.” That might fit someone’s desire for an easy to understand election process, but it doesn’t match the facts.

Yes, Hillary Clinton has raised a total of $78.6 million, slightly less than Barack Obama’s $78.9 million, but there is one very important distinction that no one is talking about. Did you know that $10 million of the $78.6 million that Hillary has raised came from Hillary Rodham Clinton, via Friends of Hillary? It seems that no one loves Hillary as much as Hillary loves Hillary. So, if you look at the facts, Hillary has not raised more than Barack. She has raised less money.

But really when it comes right down to it, does it matter who has raised $78.6 million and who has raised $78.9 million? Several candidates have raised plenty of money to remain viable including John Edwards, Mitt Romney (who has loaned his campaign $17.3 million), Rudi Giuliani, John McCain and Bill Richardson. If a candidate has a 16 lb. sledge hammer or a 12 lb. sledge hammer, who cares? They have a big enough tool (some would argue weapon) to compete in the primaries.

So, don’t believe it when you read that the election of Hillary Clinton is inevitable. It's not even true that the election of a Democrat to the White House is assured. When it comes to elections, nothing is predictable. No amount of money could make a candidate inevitable.

Getting and Giving the Gift of a Goat

I am so excited! I’m getting a goat for my birthday. I’m not kidding (pardon the pun).

My wife has been asking me for the last month what I’d like to have for my birthday. You know, at this stage in my life, if there’s anything I really want, I just go buy it. So, I’m terrible to shop for.

Yesterday as I was driving home I was listening to an audio recording of Bill Clinton’s new book, “Giving.” In the book he tells the story of Heifer International. Heifer has a very interesting model for giving. Givers buy an animal, such as a heifer or a goat. The receiver is provided with training and supplies as well as the animal. The only requirement of the recipient is that he or she passes along the animal’s first offspring to someone else. That way the gift keeps expanding in ever-widening circles. You can read more and Heifer International and watch videos by clicking here.

When I arrived home, there was a Heifer catalog waiting for me. The catalog lists various animals that can be donated, along with their price. You can give a flock of ducks for $20 or a share of a flock of ducks for $10. Other gifts include:

• Heifer, $500
  
• Water Buffalo, $250
  
• Llama, $150
  
• Goat, $120
  
• Sheep, $120
  
• Pig, $120
  
• Trees, $60
  
• Trio of Rabbits, $60
  
• Honeybees, $30
  
• Flock of Chicks, $20
  
• Flock of Ducks, $20
  
• Flock of Geese, $20

So, that’s what I want for my birthday. Instead of giving me a gift, I’ve asked my wife to buy a goat for a deserving family through Heifer International. If you’re looking for an amazing gift that will change the life of a family, consider giving a gift to Heifer International today.

Jubilee: A Parable of Real Hope

I want to tell you a story about a man named Bob. It is not strictly a true story, but like my Dad says, never let the facts get in the way of a perfectly good story.

A Parable

Bob Draker is a good man. He gets up at 4:30 AM every day to go to work as a transportation coordinator for the school district. He’s at the bus barn before the first bus leaves, and he’s there to make sure every bus returns safely. He worries about the kids who ride his buses, but no more than he worries about his own kids. This job, which pays barely more than minimum wage was not his life’s dream. But he and his wife Noreen had their first child, Sherri when they were beginning their days at college. Sherri was soon followed by Stephen.

Noreen dropped out of college to do temp work so that Bob could continue his education, but with the cost of childcare, her income barely covered her expenses. Sherri had medical problems when she was eighteen months old, and Bob and Noreen did not have insurance. The bills were intense and, despite his academic promise; Bob had to drop out of college to make ends meet. Now they both were lacking in education with tremendous bills. And so they work every day, but every day they seem to be falling farther and farther behind.

Bob has a very well-off uncle who took pity on him. The uncle knew Bob was behind on the rent and several bills, and so the uncle loaned him some money to help him through the hard time. Bob was temporarily relieved, but with the debt payment to his uncle, his troubles just multiplied. About the time that Bob was making headway on his medical debts, his landlord raised the rent. The uncle again took pity on Bob and loaned him more money. After a few years of this, Bob was paying 25% of his income to his uncle to service his debt.

As time went on, Bob received some decent raises, and Noreen’s temp job became a permanent job with a good employer. She is making her way up in the ranks at the company and making more money. So, Bob and Noreen have been able to make headway on their medical bills and, besides the money they owe the uncle, they are in pretty good shape. Bob and Noreen both dream of finishing their education and moving up in life, but much of their life is spent making money to pay their debt to Bob’s uncle.

Bob does not want to offend his uncle. The children love the uncle, who often brings them gifts or buys them school supplies. Just a few weeks ago Stephen went with the uncle to the store and came back with a desperately-needed new pair of shoes. Bob and Noreen are in a very difficult position.

As I confessed at the beginning of this story, Bob, Noreen, Sherri, Stephan and the uncle are fictional characters, but they might not represent who you think they do.

Bob and his family are the poorest nations.

And you are his uncle.

Some countries spend as much as 25-30% of their annual budgets servicing their debt. For every dollar poor countries receive in aid, they still pay out $2.30 in debt service. Because their resources are going to debt payments, they don’t have resources left to provide access to clean water, education and basic healthcare.

But you can change this.

A Hope

There is a way out for the poorest nations. There is a very old idea that can work. It is called Jubilee. The idea is found in the book of Leviticus.

"It shall be a jubilee for you; each one of you is to return to his family property and each to his own clan."
- Leviticus 25: 10

As the children of Israel were getting ready to go into the Promised Land, God gave them instructions on how to handle debt. The idea is that families, would own property. They could “sell” it to a neighbor, but for a period no longer than 49 (7 times 7) years. In the 50th year, the Jubilee year, the property would return to the original owner. The selling price of property was based on the use the buyer might get for using the property for whatever time was left until the Jubilee year.

Imagine the power of this debt forgiveness. People could lose their property (and with it their livelihood), be sold into indentured servitude, but they would always have hope because eventually the year of Jubilee would come and everything would be set right again.

We Have the Power of Forgiveness

If you hear about a 79-year-old man who is fasting for 40 days, will that make you curious? Would you wonder what was so important? David Duncombe began a water-only fast on Sept. 1, 2007 and plans to maintain the fast for over 40 days. And he’s not alone. Zambia's first president, Kenneth Kaunda is on a fast. Four members of Congress are going to fast for one day. Thousands of people around the world are joining in the fast. Why? What is so important?

They are fasting in support of upcoming legislation before Congress, the Jubilee Act, which is a bill that would dissolve the debts of many of the world’s poorest nations.
The bill, H.R. 2634, is co-sponsored by Rep. Maxine Waters, a Democrat from California, and Spencer Bachus, a Republican from Alabama.

Debt cancellation would allow funds to be used for poverty reduction instead of debt reduction. This would decrease poor countries’ dependence on foreign aid.

We have some recent success stories to prove that this works. In the recent past the U.S. and other industrialized countries have forgiven debt through two initiatives: the Highly Indebted Poor Country (HIPC) Initiative and the Multilateral Debt Relief Initiative (MDRI). The countries that have taken advantage of this opportunity for debt forgiveness have seen vast improvements. Here are some examples:

• Mozambique used its debt service savings to vaccinate children against tetanus, whooping cough and diphtheria, as well as build and electrify schools.
  
• Nigeria is using the $750 million in debt service savings from 2006 to train and recruit new teachers.
  
• Cameroon used its debt savings to launch a national HIV/AIDS plan for prevention, education, testing and mother-to-child transmission abatement.

However, HIPC and MDRI did not work for everyone. Only 21 of 40 countries that are eligible for the HIPC program have obtained 100% cancellation. The majority of the 19 remaining countries have been delayed by the requirement that they comply with harmful economic reforms, including moves to privatize water or restrict spending on health care workers.

That’s where the Jubilee Act comes in. The Jubilee Act contains the following provisions:

• Calls on the U.S. Treasury to support 100% cancellation of bilateral and multilateral debts
  
• Calls for an audit of other outstanding debt claims, to determine the odious and illegitimate origins of impoverished country debts
  
• Prohibits specific structural adjustment conditions including the imposition of user fees on health and education and mandated privatization of water
  
• Contains a provision that governments should allocate 20% of their budgets on social services and development, including education and health care
  
• Debt cancellation would be financed through the IMF and World Bank's existing resources to the extent possible

Here’s What You can Do

You can get involved right away. Here are three simple acts you can take to forgive the debt of the poorest countries in the world.

1. Ask your Member of Congress to cosponsor the Jubilee Act (HR 2634) - sponsored by Reps. Maxine Waters (D-CA) and Spencer Bachus (R-AL) - which will extend debt cancellation without imposing harmful economic conditions on all impoverished countries that are required to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). One.org has made it easy by providing all of the tools. Click Here to take action.
   
2. Log on to http://www.jubileeusa.org/ to learn more about how you can become involved with the Jubilee Act.
   
3. Join One.org in the campaign to make poverty history.

Please take a few minutes and get involved today.

None Dare Call it Torture

There’s a story told about President Abraham Lincoln. A group of citizens came to him early in his presidency, before the start of the civil war, and tried to get him to sign the Emancipation Proclamation. Lincoln listened politely, and then posed a question to his visitors. “If you call a dog’s tail a leg, then how many legs would a dog have?” The group answered “Five.” “No,” replied Lincoln. “A dog has four legs. Calling a tail a leg does not make it a leg.”

If George W. Bush would have been president in 1861, he might have gotten his Attorney General to redefine the word slavery as “executions specifically with guillotines.” Then he would have said to the citizens, “This government does not enslave people. There are highly trained professionals holding these extremists and terrorists. We don’t practice slavery. There is no slavery. Slavery is not in our nature.” Bush would have called a tail a leg and pretended everything was alright.

A 2002 Justice Department memo said that torture only occurs when the prisoner experiences “pain associated with organ failure or death.” With this broad definition, anything that did not kill the prisoner was not torture. Though in 2004, the Justice Department posted a note on its web site that “Torture is abhorrent both to American law and values," in 2005 they approved the very techniques they had just declared to be abhorrent.

On October 3rd, a New York Times article revealed that in 2005 the Justice Department released an opinion that gave “an expansive endorsement of the harshest interrogation techniques ever used by the Central Intelligence Agency.” Around the same time that Congress passed a law affirming that cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment of prisoners was illegal; the Justice Department was redefining the terms by issuing blanket statements that none of the CIA’s techniques were cruel, inhuman or degrading.

By the stroke of the pen, the Bush administration changed the definition of torture. They authorized head-slapping, water-boarding, sleep deprivation, and exposing people to frigid temperatures. In the mind of President Bush, if he says torture is not torture, then America does not practice torture.

This is not the only time that the Bush Administration has redefined words to suit its purposes.

• For example, the Bush Administration does not want to say they send people to other countries to be tortured, so it’s called “extraordinary rendition.” Whether we do the torturing or we outsource torturing to others, it’s still torture.
  
• If the Bush Administration wants to strip a human being of his or her rights, they call them an “enemy combatant.” This is a made-up term that avoids affording the person the rights of a US prisoner or a prisoner-of-war. By creating a new set of words for people, the Bush Administration feels they can justify any treatment of human beings.
  
• According to the Bush Administration, by placing a person at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba the person is not on US territory, and yet he or she is not on the territory of any other nation. Where are they, the moon? The Bush Administration would like to make you think that these people have been taken off of the planet, but that is not true. People in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, a US military installation, are on US property. The CIA also operates “black sites,” prisons where US laws supposedly do not apply. The theory that US laws do not apply is not true, no matter how the Bush Administration would like to define the terms.
  
• The Bush Administration has a habit of using “signing statements.” When the president signs a bill into law, if he decides that the law does not apply to him, he simply attaches a signing statement that says so. This is a clear violation of the separation of powers.
  
• The law said that the Bush Administration had to get a court order from the FISA court to spy on Americans. The Bush Administration decided that the law did not apply to them, so they spied on us anyway. Worse yet, Congress passed a temporary bill changing the law that Bush had broken, retroactively making the illegal act of spying on Americans legal.
  
• And all of this is protected by a claim of “state secrets,” a claim that was just supported by the right-wing friendly Supreme Court.

I am reminded of the comment of Special Counsel for the Army Joseph N. Welch to Senator Joseph McCarthy. “Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency?” I am horrified by the brazen behavior of the Bush Administration and the seeming lack of public outcry. Have we no sense of decency?

If no one else will expose the indecency of the Bush Administration, then it’s up to us, the people. Here are three actions you can take today.

1. Join Amnesty International’s effort 86 Days to restore civility and the rule of law. October 17th marks the first year anniversary of the Military Commissions Act. There will be events held around the country starting on October 17th and culminating on January 11th, the anniversary of the first detainee held at Guantánamo Bay, 86 days later.
   
2. Flood the phones in Congress in support of the FISA Modernization Bill.
   
3. Press the presidential candidates to come out clearly in opposition to the use of torture – and be sure to make them define their terms!

Together we can make a difference. When others do not dare to do so, we will call torture just what it is: torture.