US Politics Mega-thread - Page 233

On May 11 2013 05:31 DeepElemBlues wrote:
https://twitter.com/whitehouse/status/332235084809768962

this is the kind of stuff that obama pulls that really grinds my gears.

i was conceived and born in the state of pennsylvania. i didnt come from anywhere else, obama. i came from here. dont tell me that shit.

and before anyone says its just the white house twitter not necessarily obama, the man has spoken that exact line before.

On May 11 2013 05:33 {CC}StealthBlue wrote:


whereas your great great great grandparents weren't conceived in PA, stop trying to make mountains out of a mole hill.

On May 11 2013 05:40 DeepElemBlues wrote:


no but they were conceived in the USA

my first ancestor to step foot on american soil did so in 1820

native americans didnt come from here either, they came from kamchatka and eastern siberia

all it is is marginalization of opponents on a political issue through a race-based put down

as if we dont have the right to oppose immigration because we're the descendants of immigrants

its not a molehill its classic obama divide and antagonize strategy, shortsighted, crass, and vulgar.

On May 11 2013 06:40 JonnyBNoHo wrote:
Didn't Native Americans, ultimately, come from somewhere else as well?

On May 11 2013 06:40 JonnyBNoHo wrote:
Didn't Native Americans, ultimately, come from somewhere else as well?

On May 11 2013 06:40 JonnyBNoHo wrote:
Didn't Native Americans, ultimately, come from somewhere else as well?

On May 11 2013 07:58 Kimaker wrote:
There are no native Earthlings, since multicellular life didn't exist when the planet formed. This planet rightly belongs to the inanimate and inorganic matter which makes it up.

nasa article:
If this idea proves true, then as Van Dover gazes through the submarine's camera at the vents on the floor of the Indian Ocean, she may be seeing both a portrait of life's genesis in Earth's distant past -- and a glimpse of alien life yet to be discovered.

david icke:
i told you so.

On May 11 2013 09:15 aksfjh wrote:
"Native Americans" were here when America was formed. They were here during the birth and all the transformations of the United States as a country. That's the line I would draw anyways.

On May 11 2013 05:52 {CC}StealthBlue wrote:


Oh for fuck sake either describe your family tree via a tweet or don't it that's simple.

In a remarkable ruling (pdf), the Peshawar High Court has ruled that US drone strikes carried out within Pakistan are illegal, that they are war crimes and that they must be stopped immediately. The court also directed Pakistan’s military to intervene should drones enter Pakistan air space.

As described by Alice Ross at The Bureau of Investigative Journalism, this ruling comes in a case brought by the son of one of the tribal elders killed in the March 17, 2011 drone strike that killed as many as 40 innocent elders gathered to discuss mineral rights:


The judgment applies to a lengthy case against the CIA brought by the Foundation for Fundamental Rights on behalf of Noor Khan, a tribesman whose father was among dozens of civilians killed in a drone strike on a gathering of tribal elders on March 17 2011. Last year, Noor Khan also attempted to bring legal action against the UK government for providing information that could lead to deaths in drone strikes, in a case backed by legal charity Reprieve. The attempt was refused but he is appealing.

Lawyer Shahzad Akbar, who argued the Peshawar case, said: ‘It is a landmark judgment: drone victims in Waziristan will now get some justice after a long wait. This ruling will also prove to be a test for the new government as if drones continue and government fails to act, it will run the risk of contempt of court.’

[snip]

After that lengthy list of petitions, the decision launches immediately into a description of the situation, pulling no punches as it does so. It starts with a stunning sentence:


The serial killing of local civilians both of North & South Waziristan Agency, adjoining Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province through drone strikes visibly commenced from the year 2008 which is still continuing unabated.

Later, it hits very hard on the process the US has used to claim its drone strikes are legal while decrying the low number of militants killed compared to civilians:


The United States through self framed opinion labeled these foreign elements as their enemy. The U.S decision making troika, the President, Pentagon & CIA have joined hands to carryout drone strikes in these areas on spy information to hit & kill these elements, however, the ratio of killing of foreign elements is negligible while local civilians, non-combatants, casualties are shockingly considerable, beside damage caused to the properties of the local population, their households and other moveable properties including cattle heads, in great number, is a painful phenomena. The most shocking, gruesome & goriest side of these ruthless strikes is that the degree of precision is hardly maintained and why the figures, given above, would prove that these are carried out at random and innocent civilians casualties mostly of infant babies, pre-teen & teenage children, women & others including their properties are hundred times greater than those, killed alleged to be militants.

Signature strikes in particular are regarded as problems:


Mary O Connell in “Unlawful Killing with Combat Drones” based on the case study of Pakistan SSRN, 2004-2009, has clearly pointed out that since a majority of drone strikes in Pakistan fall under “signature strikes”, these would not be proportionate under the Geneva Conventions and thus, is illegal under International Law. The forming of an opinion by the CIA that these strikes target groups of men, who are militants having links with terrorist groups, is based on figment of imagination and till date no tangible, reliable & convincing proof has been furnished to that effect by the U.S Authorities including CIA.

Oh my. That paragraph is going to leave a mark on the author of US signature strike policy, John Brennan.

There also is reference to the practice of killing first responders:


The international observers’ analysis unrebuttably proved that through drone strikes in Pakistan territory residential houses, vehicles, worshippers in mosques, mourners in funeral procession and even rescue personnel have been attacked with brutality.

Unfortunately, liberal voices in the United States are largely ignoring, if not condoning, civilian deaths and extrajudicial killings in Yemen — including the assassination of three American citizens in September 2011, including a 16-year-old. During George W. Bush's presidency, the rage would have been tremendous. But today there is little outcry, even though what is happening is in many ways an escalation of Mr. Bush's policies.