Dude, Where's My Constitutionally Guaranteed Rights?

[tspencer227]

So I recieved the following email from a group called the American Family Association, an extreme right-wing Ultra- Conservative Christian special interest group. I'm not quite sure how I ended up on their mailing list, but from time to time they do have emails that I find interesting, for example the ongoing battle to keep the cross at the Mount Soledad Veteran's Memorial, and Shatter the Silence, but for the most part the emails (at least to me) smack of intolerance towards Homosexuality and Censorship in the media (contrary to what the organization's website claims). It's things like this that give Christianity a bad name. Granted, I don't claim to be the best, or most devout, Christian by any means, but I do consider myself to be a follower of Christ, the son of the one true God who came to earth to teach humanity how to get along with one another, and to take away the sins of the world. If you don't believe that, that's cool with me too. And if anything I've just written offends you, I don't know why it would, so go fuck yourself. I'm just presenting my opinions. 

But I digress. 

As soon as I saw the headline on the following article, I knew I had to read it to see what they had said. Read all the way through, then look for my critique at the end. 

October 11, 2006

Please help us get this information into the hands of as many people as possible by forwarding it to your entire email list of family and friends.

What if the Liberals Win in November?

Dear Edward,

How important are the upcoming elections? Extremely important! Below is a list of what we can expect if the liberals win. These elections are crucial. It is vitally important that you vote. Please vote and encourage others to do the same. As bad as things are, they will be infinitely worse if the liberals win.

The strategy of the liberals is to get Values Voters so disgusted and discouraged that they will not vote. If that happens, the liberals will have achieved their goal and they will be running our country.

Here is what we can expect if the liberals win:

 

Sincerely,

Donald E. Wildmon, Founder and Chairman
American Family Association

P.S. Please forward this e-mail message to your family and friends!

The first couple of words to cross my mind while I was reading this email were "inflammatory" and "propaganda". This smacks of something that the Christian Coalition (which is VERY heavily entrenched in the Bush camp) would write, or something that would even come from Karl Rove's desk, since he's the one who's been holding Dubya's leash for who knows how long.  Allow me to tackle this thing point by point:

- Amnesty: OK, this issue does make me a bit nervous, but I'm also seeing it from the perspective of a Californian who works in Santa Ana, the county seat of Orange County, where an estimated 25% of the city's population consists of illegal immigrants. Having seen a LOT of the negative aspects that come with such a large concentration (gang warfare disproportionate to the size of the city, failing schools, infastructure in advanced stages of disrepair, and skyrocketing taxes to pay for health care and other social programs for illegals), I'm not sure if general amnesty is such a good idea. On the other hand, a lot of the kids I interact with on a daily basis have lived here in the states as long as they can remember, and have been trying to become citizens, or even recieve residency for 10, 15, even 20 years or more. These kids that come into my office want to make a difference, want to escape the never-ending cycle of poverty that is often systematic of lower-income areas, but don't have the means to- and the U.S. Government isn't really helping too much to make things better. It's amazing what money will buy- the city of Irvine is less than 20 miles away from Santa Ana, but the per-pupil expenditures are higher and the dropout rates are lower. I'm looking for the exact figures right now- that'll come in an edit farther down the line when I have a few free hours to kill. On the other hand, there are a lot of jobs that most Americans wouldn't even think twice about doing that plenty of hard-working Mexicans providing for a family will take in a heartbeat if it means putting food on the table. Like the ancient Romans over 1000 years ago, America has become mostly servce based and some could even argue is beginning to become apathetic and lazy. My suggestion: limited Amnesty, streamline the naturalization process, make speaking english a requirement for citizenship (again), and THEN seal the borders for a couple of years to see what happens. 

-Making Homosexual marriage legal: OK, I'm baised since I have a very close family member who's a lesbian, but WTF? I know LOTS of traditional "families" that are so unhealthy the kids are never going to turn out normal. Shouldn't the big concern be ensuring that the parents (regardless of sexual preference) are responsible, intelligent, and willing to provide for a family? In a lot of ways, this reminds me of things I've read about arguements used against mixed-race marriages just a few decades ago...and I'd like to think that I've turned out OK. AFA, you're not going to be able to shelter your kids forever, and even if you can, they'll never be able to make it in the modern Western world. 

-Appointing "Liberal" judges to implement the "social agenda". Ummm......why is this a problem? Approximately 21% of all Americans live below the traditional "poverty line"- below a household income of $19,157 as established by the U.S. Census Bureau. And, an estimated 40% of all military families are living below this line. Obviously, something isn't working. My opinon: bring on these so-called "liberal" judges! Maybe they'll be able to take care of our people.

-Liberals removing Christian references: Now see, this is the beauty of the Democratic process. If you don't like something, you can work to change it, one way or another. Besides that, this country was founded on the principle of freedom of religion, not on the freedom of denomination. Granted, I do agree that some folks are going overboard with it, but that's part of how a democracy is supposed to function. Besides, Jesus said "Go and make disciples of all nations", not "Go, and hold everybody else at gunpoint until they think like you do." The Roman emporer Constantine and the Frank king Charlemagne did that, and well, look how well that worked for them. 

-A Return to the "Fairness Doctrine": OK...this should be another "no brainer" for everybody. We all know the Fox News Network is so far slanted that the best way to watch it on TV is laying on your side. But...wouldn't this also make sense because it would require the so-called "Liberal News" outlets to have a conservative come and give his/ her opinion? I mean, one of the things that diferentiates humans from lower forms of life is the fact that can supposidly settle our differences through intelligent, peaceful communication. Or am I totally missing the point?

-An increase in taxes: OK, Dubya slashed taxes, sent out literally billions in refund checks, and is now financing a war that's costing the American people between$177 million and $195 million a day, and with the record budget surplus achieved during the Clinton Administration (but technically started during the senior Bush's administration) a fast- fading memory, Higher taxes are inevitable. The question is, where's the money going to go? Personally, I don't want to pay for Dick Cheney's retirement home any longer.

-Passing a "Hate Crimes" Law to include homosexuality: So...how is it that these people who claim to follow a God that preaches "Love your neighbor as you love yourself" and "Love your enemy" really even begin to justify this one? It reminds me of parts of Mien Kampf that I read when Hitler referred to Jews as being "sub-human". This one just sickens me. 

-Giving terrorists the right to trial: Quoting directly from the Geneva Convention: 

Article 3

In the case of armed conflict not of an international character occurring in the territory of one of the High Contracting Parties, each party to the conflict shall be bound to apply, as a minimum, the following provisions:

1. Persons taking no active part in the hostilities, including members of armed forces who have laid down their arms and those placed hors de combat by sickness, wounds, detention, or any other cause, shall in all circumstances be treated humanely, without any adverse distinction founded on race, colour, religion or faith, sex, birth or wealth, or any other similar criteria.

To this end the following acts are and shall remain prohibited at any time and in any place whatsoever with respect to the above-mentioned persons:

(a) Violence to life and person, in particular murder of all kinds, mutilation, cruel treatment and torture;

(b) Taking of hostages;

(c) Outrages upon personal dignity, in particular, humiliating and degrading treatment;

(d) The passing of sentences and the carrying out of executions without previous judgment pronounced by a regularly constituted court affording all the judicial guarantees which are recognized as indispensable by civilized peoples.

2. The wounded and sick shall be collected and cared for.

An impartial humanitarian body, such as the International Committee of the Red Cross, may offer its services to the Parties to the conflict.

The Parties to the conflict should further endeavour to bring into force, by means of special agreements, all or part of the other provisions of the present Convention.

The application of the preceding provisions shall not affect the legal status of the Parties to the conflict. 

There's a lot more, but I think that should pretty much sum up what's wrong with our current treatment of our prisoners of this undeclared, very ambiguous war. One thing that the current administration has always used as justification is that we take the "higher road" when it comes to our treatment of our fellow human beings. How the FUCK does that jive with the ongoing struggle in the White House, Congress, and the Justice system about how to deal with these POW's? Doesn't this make us no better than the very "evil" we're trying to eradicate? Sorry, this one is kind of personal for me.

-We will withdraw from Iraq: Again, I think this one is inevitable. Does anybody remember the former Yugoslavia after the fall of the Iron Curtain? For literally hundreds of years the different ethnic groups in the region had been warring- as if often human nature. The only thing that held everybody at bay was the commonality of the oppression provided by the Soviet- installed Communist regime following World War 2. And remember, the start of World War 1 can technically be traced to the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo over Bosnia independence from the empire of Austria- Hungary at that time. It took over a decade to restore some semblance of order to the republics of the Former Yugoslavia after the fall of the Soviet Union, a period of time during which millions of people were killed in "Ethnic Cleansings"- similar to the Sunni and Shiite secular violence going on in Iraq now. Even the UK's Head General acknowledges that it might be impossible to finish this one up cleanly. We all know that Dubya and the rest of his administration lives in La-La Land, but their lack of any sort of plan for a post- invasion Iraq is irresponsible at best, inexcusable at best.  The only question is: how many more innocent Iraqi civilians, or U.S. Military personnel have to die before the public general realizes that we've lost control? 

OK, that's my rant for now. I'll update with more statistics and sources later, but I'm done for now....I'm getting mad, and I need to go out, drink, fornicate, and see how many commandments (and teachings of Paul the Apostle) I can violate in as short a time as possible. :) Later yall!

• Amnesty for 12,000,000 illegal immigrants.
  
• A push to make homosexual marriage and polygamy legal in all 50 states.
  
• Only liberal judges will be appointed. They will create laws to implement the social agenda liberals cannot get passed through the legislative process.
  
• Liberals will make the killing of the unborn more difficult to stop.
  
• Liberals will continue to try to rid our society of Christian influence, including any reference to God in our Pledge and on our currency.
  
• A return to the "Fairness Doctrine" in broadcasting where opposing views must be given equal time. Every conservative talk show host will be forced to give a liberal equal time on every issue. The purpose of this rule will be to shut down conservative talk shows.
  
• An increase in taxes to push new social programs.
  
• Passing a new "hate crimes" law making it illegal to refer to homosexuality in a negative manner.
  
• Liberals will give terrorists from other countries who try to kill Americans the same rights American citizens enjoy under our constitution.
  
• We will withdraw from Iraq, sending the message to the terrorists that if they will just be patient they can win and bring their terrorist acts to the U.S.

Go Vote! Encourage Others To Do The Same.

Sign up to stayed informed! Visit the American Family Association at www.AFA.net today!

Comments

[noporn.livejournal.com]

I think you didn't attach the article....

Anyways, I agree with you. What's so wrong with Liberals, aside from their lack of experience in office.

Canadian's have been Liberal for years... decades! For the first time last year Conservatives won and everyone in Canada thought that we were going to start bombing other countries and turn into a huge US state.

Truth is, same bullshit, different leader.

[redeemed-143.livejournal.com]

lol