“Speak softly and carry a big stick…”

These were the words of Theodore Roosevelt, and for a long time our country lived by them as our foreign policy. We exercised real diplomacy, speaking with the leaders of enemy nations to help prevent war. We recognized that as long as we had that big stick in our hands we didn’t need to make threats to other nations to keep them from attacking us or our allies. What I want to know is when we lost that realization. Now we have a politician that is being attacked for his idea that we should be meeting with people we’re at odds with and try a good, old-fashioned conversation to see if we can reconcile our differences, while having that big stick (read United States Air Force) sitting in the background. It seems our idea of good foreign policy has become waving our big stick around and then yelling “You better not mess with us, this is what we’ve got if you do!” We don’t talk, we don’t ask, we just say “We’re the boss” and then point to our stick.

This is not a foreign relations policy, this is a terrorist recruitment tool. This is a way for nations opposing us to find young, easily influenced people and say “America is our enemy, America is a threat.” If we weren’t going around the world pointing to our big stick, this wouldn’t be as much of an issue as it is. I have to wonder if it has occurred to our current leaders Roosevelt’s ideas of diplomacy could improve our nation’s image in the eyes of the world. I have to wonder if they realize that real diplomacy, really working towards a peaceful solution, is going to give our enemies less of a reason to hate us and to get others to hate us. Maybe instead of attacking the idea of being diplomatic, the Republicans should pull their heads out of their asses and start a conversation that encourages peaceful solutions to international problems.

Who am I kidding. This isn’t going to happen until we get some real change in this country, until our entire political environment changes. But this isn’t going to happen. America isn’t going to open its eyes, it’s going to take someone forcing them open.

Posted by Wes Mueller on 05/30 at 12:00 AM  •   •  permalink

Viacom, I think it’s time that you invest in some new legal advisers. This lawsuit against YouTube is going to get you nothing except for paying out the ass in wasted legal fees. If your legal advisers were worth the money you pay them then you would realize that there are already two cases that have set a precedent for systems which can be used for both non-infringing and infringing copyrighted material. Hell, one of those cases has happened within the last four years! Haven’t you read anything about the case against Grokster? That program was even design for the purpose of illegal file sharing, and it was still spared the chopping block because of the Sony Rule of 1984. An application that can be used for both infringing and non-infringing uses may not be held as a liable party for the copyright infringement of the people who use the program. In this particular case with YouTube, the service is clearly designed for a non-infringing purpose and is largely used as such. I would say put money on the fact that a higher percentage of what is posted to YouTube is non-infringing than is infringing. Grokster certainly couldn’t boast that, but MGM still wasn’t able to get them held liable because of the previous precedent which was set in 1984. You’re claim regarding the Digital Copyright Millennium Act is a moot point as well, as Grokster was brought to court for this issue after the Act was put into place. I think it’s safe to say that your legal advisers are swindling you if they’re telling you that there’s a chance in hell that you’ll win this case. No, you’re just going to look like the giant asshole of broadcasting networks that can’t pull it’s head out of it’s ass and realize that the world around you is changing more rapidly than you’re willing to adapt.

Oh yeah, and I still know all about the ONE campaign…

Posted by Wes Mueller on 05/28 at 12:00 AM  •   •  permalink

Oh Johnny Boy, you rascal you.

You have put so much emphasis on your military record, your time as a P.O.W., but you won’t support a bill to help the young people of this country who have decided it is their duty to follow your lead? Oh no, you say you want to give them benefits, but the problem with the current bill is that the soldiers aren’t getting in the way of bullets enough times. No, they should have to re-enlist two or three times before they get those health benefits, that help with college. They should risk there lives more than once in the defense of the nation they’re so proud to serve before we will help provide mental health care, after coming home from seeing all those people die at their own hands. We need them to see more friends die, get hit with more shrapnel, get shot in more limbs before can help provide the care they need.

I understand that Obama hasn’t served, that he doesn’t know what it’s like to go to war, but then again, neither did Bush and you seemed fine with him sending thousands of kids oversees. The truth is you are a hypocrite. If you’re going to be so dead set on a person’s need to serve the nation in combat, you better be offering them some great benefits when they come home with a broken mind and a missing leg.

Posted by Wes Mueller on 05/26 at 12:00 AM  •   •  permalink

I am of the opinion that the Church of Scientology International should be declared the official religion of the United States of America. Lately I’ve been thinking about these two fine groups, and I really think that they’re made for each other. Let us compare the two groups’ management and their principles:

MONEY
Is there anything that money can’t buy in America? We sell everything, even our votes are for sale. We sell them to the politician that promises us the biggest tax breaks and three month gas tax holidays. Our politicians then turn around and sell their votes in Congress and the White House to the corporation who will send them on the most paid trips to Scotland to play golf. Everything that we have has a price on it. Why not our faith? From Scientology’s educated point of view our salvation should cost us, and by Hubbard, we’re willing to pay for it. We’ve got people all the way from Joe Blue-Collar-American to Tom Rich-As-Hell Cruise doling out money to get control of their Body Thetans. It only makes sense that this pricey religion for the everyman be made into the Church of America!

POWER
If there’s one thing we love more than money here it the good ol’ U.S. of A, it’s the power that the money buys. I don’t think anyone understands this more than David Miscaviage, the current head of the Church of Scientology. This is a man who has used the power of money to convince the I.R.S. that what is clearly organized and making money as a corporation is in fact a non-profit religion that should be tax exempt. And if you can convince the I.R.S. that you shouldn’t be paying taxes, you can convince me! The only other people who can manage this feat are giant corporations like Exxon-Mobile, and they had to set up off shores tax havens to get around those pesky taxes. Scientology clearly understands what it means to be American, because they didn’t even have to leave the countries jurisdiction for their tax exempt status. This is just another great reason to make them our national Church.

FEAR
Who in the world is better at striking fear into the hearts of their enemies than America? We have a nuclear stockpile that made Soviet Russia shake in their boots, we’ve got “Shock and Awe” tactics in the Middle East, we’ve got the P.A.T.R.I.O.T. Act and it’s warrant free wiretapping here at home, and if anyone understands that this is the way towards freedom, it’s the Church of Scientology. To protect their copyrighted documents on The Bridge to Total Freedom the Church has been attacking anyone who leaks this information onto the Internet with their mightiest weapon: Litigation! If there’s anything that represents America is the power of the lawsuit. In an effort to keep Freedom proprietary the Church understands that it needs to strike fear into the minds and hearts of all those un-American thieves that would claim that Freedom shouldn’t cost them money. Clearly these people know what America is all about.

These correlations in policy and values just shows that the Church of Scientology and the United States of America were made for each other, so it’s up to us to convince them to tie the knot. To not push for a declaration of their love would be entirely un-American and if we don’t, shame on us all for not embracing this marriage with all of our hearts (and wallets).

Posted by Wes Mueller on 05/23 at 01:00 AM  •   •  permalink

I’ve got a splitting headache. I think the headlines are to blame for this. Every time I open up my news feeds all I can see is Hillary Clinton. She seems to have gotten around that media bias she was so intent on carrying on about. But is this a good thing for her, or for any of us who are tired of the “leadership” that we’ve been seeing for the past eight years? Let’s say she somehow manages to get Michigan and Florida’s votes to count towards her pledged delegates. She goes on to win the primary based on this, and we get to the general election. Can we really vote for someone who has laid on this amount of slime to her campaign? Is she any better than Karl Rove? She signed a pledge with the other candidates at the beginning of the election saying that she would not campaign in Florida or remain on the ballot on Michigan. She then sent letters to Florida Democrats reminding them to vote, and remained on the ballot for Michigan, breaking that pledge and winning both states in the process. Now she’s hurting bad in the race to be the candidate for President of the United States of America, and she’s going even further back on her pledge, attempting to get the delegates seating at the Democratic National Convention! She’s yelling “Sexism, Bias!” but has she once stepped back and looked at the way her campaign could be viewed by the people she’s trying to get to vote for her? Can we really trust that she’ll be a better President then John McCain when she’s using tactics like that? I, for one, am seeing the lines blur here, and I’m starting to wonder if there is a difference between these candidates. If she were to go to the election in November we’d be pretty screwed. I don’t want this election to just be another vote for the status quo, I want to see a chance to change things, shake them up a bit. Politics in America need a change, and Hillary Clinton is not going to be that change, and John McCain sure as hell isn’t going to change the way things have been operating.

Please America, don’t make me try to expatriate…because if these people are the only real choices I have come November, I might just have to consider that.

Posted by Wes Mueller on 05/21 at 09:51 PM  •   •  permalink