The following nations . . .

by Dick Mac

. . . have at least one thing in common.

No, they are not all second- or third-world nations. Russia is in the list and Russia is a first-world country.

They are not all wealthy or poor, or hot or cold, or North or South. Some are English-speaking countries, some are not.

They are inhabited by people of every race.

Some are allies of the United States, some are not.

Some are big and some are small.

Look at the list closely:

Afghanistan
Algeria
Angola
Azerbaijan
Bahamas
Bahrain
Bangladesh
Belize
Benin
Botswana
Brunei Dar-Sala
Burkina Faso
Burundi
Cameroon
China
Comoros
Congo
Cote d’Ivoire
Cuba
Democratic People’s Republic of Korea
Democratic Republic of Congo
Djibouti
Egypt
Eritrea
Ethiopia
Ghana
Grenada
Guyana
Haiti
Indonesia
Iran
Iraq
Jamaica
Jordan
Kazakhstan
Kenya
Kuwait
Lebanon
Lesotho
Liberia
Libya
Madagascar
Malawi
Malaysia
Maldives
Mali
Morocco
Mozambique
Myanmar
Namibia
Niger
Nigeria
Oman
Pakistan
Qatar
Russian Federation
Rwanda
Saint Kitts and Nevis
Saint Lucia
Saint Vincent and Grenadines
Saudi Arabia
Senegal
Sierra Leone
Somalia
South Africa
Sudan
Suriname
Swaziland
Syrian Arab Republic
Tajikistan
Tunisia
Uganda
United Arab Emirates
United Republic of Tanzania
Uzbekistan
Viet Nam
Yemen
Zambia
Zimbabwe

They are all members of the United Nations; and they all voted for an amendment to the UN's position on the death penalty.

The UN has a generally positive position on the death penalty, condemning it as a tool that is used unfairly. In countries that use it, it is most often used to eliminate people of a particular class, race, or political persuasion.

The UN's total inability to protect the weakest and prevent mass murder is a different conversation; to its credit, the UN has convinced many nations to abolish the most barbaric form of state-sanctioned murder: the death penalty.

So the UN was putting forward a resolution condemning the death penalty and reaffirming the list of groups they believe are targeted more often than others for death under questionable laws.

For the past ten years, that list included sexual minorities, including homosexuals.

Well, the shitty little nation of bigots in Africa called Benin (yes, I know, you've never heard of it either) put forth an amendment to remove homosexuals from the list. Meaning, that it's OK to sentence homosexuals to death simply for being homosexual.

A collection of notorious human rights violators voted for the amendment including Afghanistan, Algeria, China, Congo, Cuba, Eritrea, North Korea, Iran (didn't Ahmadinejad tell the world there were no gays in Iran?), Egypt, Malaysia, Pakistan, Russia, Sudan, Uganda, Vietnam, Yemen, and Zimbabwe.

Add to this Bahamas, Belize (where you get 10 years for being gay), Jamaica (10 years of hard labor), Grenada (10 years), Guyana (life sentence), Saint Kitts and Nevis (10 years), Saint Lucia (10 years), Saint Vincent (10 years), South Africa (Apartheid? What apartheid?), and Morocco (ruled by a gay monarch!). They are all on the list of nations that do not think execution of gays and lesbians is worthy of condemnation or investigation. (The full vote tally is published beneath this column.)

To its shame, Colombia was among the 16 nations who abstained.

United Nations: It’s Okay To Kill The Gay

Seventy-nine nations voted for the amendment, 70 against it, and 17 abstained. Twenty-six nations were absent from the voting. So, the amendment passed and the UN no longer condemns the execution of homosexuals based solely on their sexuality.

Nice.

So, here again is the list of nations again so we can all consider a boycott of their tourism, products and economy:

Afghanistan
Algeria
Angola
Azerbaijan
Bahamas
Bahrain
Bangladesh
Belize
Benin
Botswana
Brunei Dar-Sala
Burkina Faso
Burundi
Cameroon
China
Comoros
Congo
Cote d’Ivoire
Cuba
Democratic People’s Republic of Korea
Democratic Republic of Congo
Djibouti
Egypt
Eritrea
Ethiopia
Ghana
Grenada
Guyana
Haiti
Indonesia
Iran
Iraq
Jamaica
Jordan
Kazakhstan
Kenya
Kuwait
Lebanon
Lesotho
Liberia
Libya
Madagascar
Malawi
Malaysia
Maldives
Mali
Morocco
Mozambique
Myanmar
Namibia
Niger
Nigeria
Oman
Pakistan
Qatar
Russian Federation
Rwanda
Saint Kitts and Nevis
Saint Lucia
Saint Vincent and Grenadines
Saudi Arabia
Senegal
Sierra Leone
Somalia
South Africa
Sudan
Suriname
Swaziland
Syrian Arab Republic
Tajikistan
Tunisia
Uganda
United Arab Emirates
United Republic of Tanzania
Uzbekistan
Viet Nam
Yemen
Zambia
Zimbabwe

See more,

UN General Assembly Votes To Allow Gays To Be Executed Without Cause

Oslo Freedom Forum

God Says:

by Dick Mac

My favorite part of watching the religious get upset about the lives, loves, lifestyles, and decisions of other people, is their presumption that they know exactly what God wants.

Instead of accepting the Bible and their other religious writings as spiritual challenges and lessons for themselves, they choose to form a morality they then impose on others.

I'm not talking about criminal matters of murder, rape, larceny, arson or plunder, here; I am talking about life and love and charity.

My experience as a Christian is that most Christians are bigots, and they hide their fears, their manias and phobias, behind a mantle of religiosity (and often conservatism) because they cannot fathom that they might be afraid, or wrong, or homosexual.

Conservative Christians are the most dangerous people in the world not because they kill people, although they would like that to be a legitimate part of their agenda via capital punishment; but because they want to do long-term damage to Western Civilization (if it can still be called that) by enacting laws like DOMA and DADT that have generational implications.

That's why I was so excited to get this message from God:



If you know anyone who opposes gay marriage, avoid them as best you can. If you know anyone who supports the death penalty, give them a wide berth. In general, let the so-called conservatives have their little lives separate from you.

How's Your Execution Going?

The American people are the only first-world nation to promote the death penalty outside its own borders. We are the only nation that is encouraging other nations to kill their own citizens.

Another former Iraqi government official has been hanged.

We're doing a bang-up job spreading democracy around Iraq! Look how well it's going.

Soon, they can defund their schools and social welfare programs while giving tax breaks only to the wealthiest Iraqis, all the while dismantling civil liberties and throwing tax dollars away on an immoral war; and then Iraq will look even more like the United States.

Spread around a little religious fundamentalism sprinkled with some televised smut and you'd never know the difference between an Iraqi warlord and the general manager of your local Wal-Mart!

Well, make sure you through in some homophobia and racism and dash of hegemony and a heaping helping of mysogyny. Maybe an evangelist loaded on meth with a cock in his bum, and a broadcast of a conservative homosexual defending the president, and voila!, it's Prime Time USA live from downtown Baghdad!

There! Now Iraq looks very American!

But, first, let's execute some more people.

That will make us free, and them too.

The Shiites are executing people in our name! We have to stop. We have to get out of Iraq before we become the most morally bankrupt free-country in the history of civilization.

>Saddam's former deputy hanged in Iraq
By KIM GAMEL, Associated Press Writer
March 20, 2007

The former deputy in Saddam Hussein's government was hanged before dawn Tuesday for the killings of 148 Shiites, an official with the prime minister's office said. Taha Yassin Ramadan, who was Saddam's vice president when the regime was ousted by the U.S.-led invasion that began four years ago Tuesday in Iraq, was the fourth man to be executed in the killings of 148 Shiites following a 1982 assassination attempt against the former leader in the town of Dujail north of Baghdad.

The official, who witnessed the hanging but spoke on condition of anonymity because an official announcement had not been made, said precautions had been taken to prevent a repeat of what happened to Saddam's half brother and co-defendant Barzan Ibrahim, who was inadvertently decapitated on the gallows.

Ramadan, who was nearly 70, was weighed before the hanging and the length of the rope was chosen accordingly, the official said.

The execution took place at an Iraqi army and police base, which had been the headquarters of Saddam's military intelligence, in a predominantly Shiite district in northern Baghdad. Ramadan had been in U.S. custody but was handed over to the Iraqis before the hanging, the official said.

The prosecutor read out the verdict of the appeals court upholding the death sentence along with Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's decision to carry it out, the official said, adding that a defense lawyer received Ramadan's written will. The contents were not revealed.

Ramadan appeared frightened and said words that indicated he was remorseful, the official said, although he was not more specific.

"He recited the two shahadahs. The execution was flawless," the official said, adding that the hanging was videotaped for official purposes. The two shahadahs are the declaration of faith repeated by Muslims — "There is no God but Allah and Muhammad is his Prophet."

Ramadan was convicted in November of murder, forced deportation and torture and sentenced to life in prison. A month later, an appeals court said the sentence was too lenient, and returned his case to the High Tribunal, which sentenced him to death.

Ramadan, who became vice president in March 1991 and was a Revolutionary Command Council member — Iraq's highest political body under Saddam — had maintained his innocence, saying his duties were limited to economic affairs, not security issues.

Saddam was executed on Dec. 30 for his role in the killings. Two of his co-defendants in the Dujail case — Ibrahim, Saddam's former intelligence chief, and Awad Hamed al-Bandar, former head of Iraq's Revolutionary Court — were executed in January.

Ibrahim plunged through the trap door and was beheaded by the jerk of the thick rope at the end of his fall, causing a furor; the Iraqi government said the decapitation was an accident. Saddam's execution drew international outrage after a clandestine video showed the former president being taunted on the gallows. Another leaked video showed Saddam's corpse with a gaping neck wound.

Saddam's regime was predominantly Sunni and many members of the sect have protested the executions on the grounds they are politically motivated by the newly empowered Shiite majority in Iraq. International human rights groups have, by and large, protested that the trial which found the men guilty did not provide them with due legal process.

Around Iraq, meanwhile, bombs tore through a Shiite mosque during prayers in Baghdad and struck several targets in the oil-rich city of Kirkuk on Monday, killing at least 26 people.

The latest attacks highlighted the challenges facing U.S. and Iraqi forces in their bid to curb sectarian bloodshed with the month-old security crackdown. Execution-style killings usually blamed on Shiite militias have fallen dramatically but bombings have not kept pace in the downward trend.

Late Monday, U.S. and Iraqi troops engaged in a major operation as part of the crackdown in the volatile Hurriyah neighborhood in northern Baghdad, state television said. Witnesses said there were many people reported holed up in two Shiite mosques, surrounded by U.S. forces.

The state-run Iraqiya network said six civilians had been killed. The U.S. military did not immediately comment on the reports.

With the war entering its fifth year, President Bush pleaded for patience as he faced Democrat-sponsored legislation that effectively would require the withdrawal of American troops from Iraq by the fall of 2008. He said his plan to curb violence by sending more U.S. troops to Baghdad and the surrounding areas needed more time. Fewer than half the reinforcements have arrived.

"There will be good days and bad days ahead as the security plan unfolds," he said in a televised statement, adding that he had received news of positive signs during a briefing on the war with his National Security Council and in a video conference call with al-Maliki.

The first military action of the war occurred in the early morning on March 20, 2003, in Baghdad, but it was still March 19 in the United States.

Al-Maliki's office said the Shiite leader assured Bush in their half-hour call that his government was pressing ahead with reconstruction and political reforms and that it remained committed to national reconciliation and the passage of a draft oil law.

Nobody claimed responsibility for Monday's bombings, but they bore the hallmarks of Sunni insurgents.

The violence in Baghdad began shortly after the afternoon call to prayer in a small green-domed mosque in the Shorja market area, where a truck bomb killed 137 people last month.

Salah Baqir, a 42-year-old vendor who saw the attack, said the bomber slipped past the guards and placed the explosives in a bag behind the preacher's lectern. The blast left a crater and a pile of rubble on the floor. At least eight worshippers were killed and 32 other people were wounded, including the preacher, police said.

Iraqi authorities have imposed strict security in the area to prevent car bombings that often target crowded markets, but Sunni insurgents have proven resilient in finding ways to circumvent the stepped up security since the start of the crackdown Feb. 14.

At least 18 people were killed and more than 50 wounded in a series of bombings in Kirkuk, 180 miles north of Baghdad — the most devastating when two parked car bombs exploded within 10 minutes in a southern part of the city. Fourteen civilians and four policemen were killed and 40 were wounded, police said.

In all, at least 55 Iraqis were killed or found dead in Iraq, including the mayor of a Shiite village southeast of Baghdad and 29 bullet-riddled bodies that turned up in the capital.

In the Sunni insurgent stronghold of Anbar province, police said at least 25 decomposed bodies — some beheaded — were found near a post office east of the provincial capital Ramadi. The U.S. military said it had no information on the report.

The U.S. military also said two Iraqi soldiers were killed and 12 were wounded when explosives planted by insurgents in a building being used as an observation post were detonated on Sunday, causing the structure to collapse in Fallujah.
___

Associated Press writers Qassim Abdul-Zahra in Baghdad and Yahya Barzanji in Sulaimaniyah, Iraq, contributed to this report.

Copyright © 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The information contained in the AP News report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press.

Copyright © 2007 Yahoo! Inc. All rights reserved.

Justice

The United States is the only first-world, the one developed nation to use the death penalty.

Our inability to legislate crime properly has burdened the American taxpayer with an enormous tax bill to house our prisoners.

This financial strain on individual citizens, and the ridiculous expense of a privatized penal system, has created a fury against the prison class.

The prison class in the United States is, primarily, under-educated, under-privileged, poverty-stricken, non-white drug users.

The prisons are not full of the people destroying American homes, families, jobs, or the very fabric of decency. No! The prisons are over-flowing with drug addicts.

The generals who ensure that cocaine makes its way across the border while confirming that bananas and rubber is being stopped, are not in prison. Jeffrey Skilling, a man responsible for destroying the lives of millions, is not in prison. Owners of under-maintained mines, where workers suffer and die, are not imprisoned. Congressmen who break every law of ethics, aren't in prison. Some of these powerful men might spend a week, month or year at a federal detention center where they are protected by guards; but none of them are sent to hell-holes like Ossining, Cedar Junction, Starke, Rahway, San Quentin, or any of the thousands of state prisons funded by taxpayers. Places where brutal rape, assault and battery, extortion, and enslavement are ignored.

No, rich white guys who destroy America are never sent anywhere they might get hurt. In fact, most of them are free to continue running their business and develop their career while imprisoned.

A single mother of two who caries an ounce of cocaine from Jersey to Harlem, in hopes of earning an extra seventy-five bucks to maintain her household is serving life in one of these joints! A guy who robs an entire community of its pension money is slapped on the wrist.

America's sense of justice is so out-of-whack that we are totally unqualified to work for justice offshore. We actually are not only unqualified, we are unable to do it. Our justice policies and our foreign policies are so draconian and immoral that even when we want to help we are doomed to failure. Why? The people to whom we have abdicated our government since 1980 are interested only in using government policy for personal profiteering. Reagan, Bush I, Clinton, and Bush II have now so deeply embedded a liberalized economy that we can't even have a conversation in the media about the ideas behind a liberalized economy and its impact on our moral fabric, lest we be called names.

We cannot get involved in a war without a profit motive, which makes it impossible for us to help those who most need our military intervention. Our only successful military actions of the last 25 years have been in conjunction with other nations under the auspices of the United Nations. Any other actions we have taken have been bared naked as immoral aggression against people unable to defend themselves against us: Panama, Grenada, Iraq. All unmitigated foolishness rooted in a need to control the flow of resources that are not rightfully ours.

When will the American people begin to speak-up about the disaster our nation has become?

Let's hope the election of a Democratic congress is the beginning of Americans really wanting change.

Let's see if Americans will vote third-party in two years when they realize that the Dems are no more capable of helping than the GOP.

Perhaps they will.