Candidate: Donald K. Allen

Donald K. Allen is a little-known independent candidate in the run for the 2008 presidency. A veterinarian who's been involved with the military, he has a lot of strong views about this country and how he plans to improve it. His ideal America: "My vision of America is a Christian nation with English as the national language, strong in defending our beliefs and steadfast in our moral convictions."

He also feels that not being a politician will allow him to speak more clearly to the American people. "Perhaps not being a politician is a good thing today."

Government/Military
Allen wants to reform Congress. He says there needs to be term limits to "instill new growth" in both the House and Senate, and riders (what he calls "earmarks") need to be made illegal. He also promotes a Presidential line-item veto. National referendums on issues that matter to everyone is also in his plans. Overall, he plans to take away some of the power that Congress has accumulated.

He supports the FairTax system (no federal income tax - higher sales taxes) since he believes there are too many people who work under the table.

"Everyone should go through some form of compulsory national service in his or her life." He wants to give everyone the chance to experience something akin to military/national service. One aspect of this could be reestablishing the New Deal program, the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC).

As for war, "...we should give our generals free hand (short of nukes) to do whatever it takes to totally subdue the enemy and its whole populace." He says that, in order to win a war, there needs to be "total unconditional surrender of the entire population or face total destruction," as in the cases of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Holding the entire population responsible is something he believes in strongly, as you'll soon see with his attitude towards the Middle East.

Iraq conflict/Middle East
Allen believes that bringing the troops home will lead to us fighting the same war in Americca, and that "proposing [bringing them home] is only a ploy to appeal to some of our ill-informed voters." George Bush inspires him because of his "determination to 'stay the course' and his strong faith in God." He also feels that there is no reason to think this is a war on oil. After all, how would it be so if it gas prices were still above $3 a gallon?

According to Allen, radical Islamists are the biggest threat to America. He also blames all of Islam: "Roughly 98 percent of Muslims claim that theirs is a peaceful religion, and that the radical 2 percent are murderous villains. What, then, prevents the 98 percent from eliminating that 2 percent themselves? Is it passive acceptance of the radicals, or unspoken support of their actions?" He believes that Islam is doomed to violence.

He shows little sympathy to Muslims who are not terrorists. "...as President I would guarantee to the Muslim world that if any of their faith were responsible for the detonation of a nuclear device in this country, they could immediately expect a similar fate for two significant cities." Also, he suggests using "pig fat as a lubricant on all US military bullets."

Immigration/Mexico
Mexico is helping illegal immigration. Allen wants to finish the massive fence on the border. He feels that our economy rests on the back of cheap immigrant workers doing the "dirty" jobs here in America, but that all immigrants need to be documented and tracked at all times.

One interesting bit that Allen proposed is to pay unhappy American citizens $25,000 to "leave and never return." He put emphasis on the "never return" part, which leads me to believe that he means not even being able to come back to see loved ones. According to Allen, it would "probably save billions in future support for these malcontents." However, due to Mexico's help of illegal immigration, Americans leaving would not be able to relocate to Mexico or Central America.

Social issues/Civil liberties/Rights/Freedoms/Environment
Believes that racial profiling is necessary to protect America. "...keep your eyes wide open for young Middle Eastern men and women. What is really wrong with that?" He doesn't say whether this applies to all people of Middle Eastern origin or to foreigners visiting the USA.

Donald Allen is against the separation of church and state, and believes organizations like the ACLU is akin to the communists in the east and that they are trying to "obliterate any reference to God." Because America was founded on Christian principles, we should go back to that. All that we're protected against in the Constitution is the freedom to practice our own religions and protection from the government declaring a state religion, not the abolition of Christianity.

Claims that there aren't any real infringements on civil rights because unless someone is doing something wrong it's not a big deal.

Personally believes abortion to be "one of the most horrible things mankind does to itself." Believes that many women are irresponsible and abortion is being used as a form of birth control, although he understands that there are cases of rape or health where abortion might be necessary. Also believes that if a woman seeks a second abortion, "she is in serious need of sex education and responsibility, maybe even psychological intervention. I can understand one 'accident,' but the second is pure stupidity."

His plan for healthcare involves a "loser pays" system in which the loser of a lawsuit would pay the costs of both sides, making people unwilling to sue doctors/hospitals. People also need to learn to take care of minor illnesses themselves at home. He would also require pharmaceutical companies to charge Americans the same price as they do people in other countries, and would try to establish "one world price."

War on Drugs: All elected officials, teachers, doctors, and health care workers should have drug testing. Sellers would face very harsh sentencing and the names of buyers would be published. "Our drug users should move to Holland."

Allen feels that minorities should stay out of the picture so as not to give the majority a "culture shock," at least in the case of sexuality. "I much preferred the days when [homosexuality] wasn't constantly thrown in your face."

He would ask teachers what they think can be done to improve our educational system. He's also concocted a program which would allow anyone entrance to college. This system would consist of students initially paying tuition, and at the end of the semester they would be reimbursed until the graduated.

Repeatedly makes a case against liberals and the liberal media. "Much of our news media has become a political arm of the opposition party, and it only publicizes that which serves their agenda to discredit the reigning administration." He blames the liberal media for making "other nations view us as 'heavy-handed' and arbitrary."

He also plans to ban puppy mills because the conditions are terrible, but says nothing about the conditions of animals in factory farming.

He's a proponent of independence from foreign oil, and would be willing to offer a $1 billion prize to whomever could make that happen. "They cycles of global colling and warming occur without our approval, and virtually nothing can be done to change or alter these trends." However, he thinks something can be done to diminish pollution levels.
______________________________________________________________
Electability (on a scale of 0-5): 0. I can't see a single way this man will be elected.

My Analysis: I couldn't get past the prejudice surrounding the Middle East and racial profiling. Also, his view that some women use abortion as birth control is demeaning to all women. I had a few questions to ask him, but since there wasn't an email contact on his site, I'll post them here:

1. You say that it's ok for racial profiling for "young Middle Eastern men and women" because otherwise it's a waste of time and money and that it wouldn't take away their civil liberties because they aren't American citizens. What about American citizens who are of Middle Eastern origin? Wouldn't they be hurt by such a policy?

2. You're against puppy mills because of the treatment of the dogs, but how do you feel about animal agriculture (factory farming)? One can argue that these animals are kept in much worse conditions than dogs in puppy mills, with many animals kept in close spaces to one another for example.

3. You say that all Muslims are accountable for actions of any of their members. Does this also apply to Christians that blow up abortion clinics? Should we bomb two of their churches?

Further Information:
Official campaign site

Previous profile:
Steve Adams

Internet Freedom

The last year or so has seen the internet becoming far more privatized, and user's freedoms are being taken away. This is a video from FreeSpeech.org.

Republicans trying to trick people...again

The Republican party is starting to become a joke, although it's a scary joke. The things they're doing to gain power is getting frighting. Below is a video from CBS News discussing how California Republicans are trying to reform the way the state's electoral college votes are given out, meaning that even if a democrat wins the popular vote republicans would still get some electoral college votes. You don't have to look deeply into this to see through it - if they were serious about reforming election, they wouldn't working only in California. After all, it's not the only state that votes Democrat. The difference is in its size and number of electoral college votes. And using sick kids to con people into signing their petition is just low.

Misheard Lyrics: Yellow Ledbetter

You gotta love incomprehensible rock songs.

The other side of global warming

Even though most people now agree that global warming is more than likely our fault, it's always good to have basic knowledge about skeptic's views. It's the only way to effectively debate something.

Unfortunately, some articles making the argument against humanity's involvement in global warming resort to bashing liberals and hippies. Thankfully, however, HowStuffWorks has a fantastic article that explains in very basic terms what climate change skeptics believe. It's not very long (don't be discouraged by the four pages), and I highly recommend it.

Are Climate Skeptics Right?

Anytime I mention climate change skeptics, I always find myself saying the same thing. And this time's no different. I love differing opinions, they create an opportunity to really understand something and investigate it. But I fear that the people trying to convince people that global warming is either not real or not caused by humans are almost working against the environment in a way. If global warming isn't real or there's nothing we can do about it, what's going to drive people to change their habits. If, in 20 years, global warming is proved wrong (which I doubt), what's so bad about having invested in clean technology? Our overall lives will still be better. Whether or not you think global warming is real, you still need to be concerned about pollution and the state of the environment.

Prepping kids for drugs

Every once in awhile there's a product put on selves that boggle minds and make us wonder who on earth came up with such an idea. That's how I feel about new Ice Breakers Pacs mints that look like drugs.I actually think it's hilarious, but what company would try to sell this to consumers. I mean, they'd have to realize that parents aren't' going to be too happy with their kids using something that so much resembles cocaine.

thanks, Neatorama

Joseph McCarthy

For today, a little history lesson. This was actually an assignment for my Turning Points in American History class.

Joe McCarthy was the Republican Senator from Wisconsin for ten years starting in 1947. He started out as a lawyer, but he wasn’t very successful. Originally a Democrat and a supporter of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal programs, he switched to the Republican Party in order to run in an election to become a Circuit Court Judge. He won due to his extremely dirty campaigning, including making accusations that his opponent, Edgar Werner, was senile and had been guilty of financial corruption.

During WWII, McCarthy joined the Marines and used this as a tool in his run for Senate upon his return. He claimed that he had been in thirty-two missions for the Marines, which was a lie. His habits hadn’t changed much since his campaign for circuit court judge. This campaign was just as dirty, but resulted in something much worse. Robert La Follette was accused of war profiteering, and even though it wasn’t true, McCarthy won the election and La Follette ended up committing suicide.

Right from the start McCarthy started to show his ruthlessness. He called for the drafting of striking miners, and said that if they did not agree to go they should be court-martialed and shot. At first McCarthy wasn’t having too much success; people had started to realize he had been lying to them. He consulted a Catholic priest named Edmund Walsh about strategies to help him keep his seat in the Senate, and Walsh suggested going after “communist subversives working in the Democratic administration.”

By setting up a system of information trading with reporter Jack Anderson, McCarthy obtained a list of 205 people he claimed were communists, including some he accused of trading secrets with the Russians. He argued in the Senate that these people were “loyalty risks.”

People were terrified of being accused of communist ties by Joseph McCarthy. People stopped accusing him of lying because he had shown that he could end their careers. The American people were being swept up in his tales of communist spies within the American government. Most people were scared of a communist invasion of the United States because of the Cold War. These accusations and anti-communism became known as “McCarthyism.”

He started to almost make a career out of ruining people’s lives. After accusing Harry Truman of being soft on communism, it was easier for Dwight Eisenhower to win the presidency. When McCarthy accused Johns Hopkins University professor Owen Lattimore of being a Russian spy (which was never proved), Lattimore moved to Europe.

The best example of how harsh McCarthy could be was his treatment of reporter Drew Pearson. Pearson has long been opposed to McCarthy, and wrote an article accusing McCarthy and Louis Budenz (who had been a witness to Lattimore’s suspected communism) of lying. McCarthy decided to retaliate, and said that Pearson was “the voice of international Communism.” Pearson’s radio sponsor pulled out and twelve newspapers cancelled contracts with him, which practically ended his career.

It was inevitable that McCarthy would go too far. After accusing the Secretary of the Army, President Eisenhower became angry. The Army passed revealing information to anti-McCarthy journalists, and the public learned of his true identity. All the power he had accumulated melted away, and in 1957 he died due to an illness related to excessive alcohol consumption.

Help the environment: don't eat meat

Kathy Freston has an article on AlterNet about switching to a vegetarian diet to help fight global warming. This isn't the first article AlterNet's had on the subject, and I'm happy that people are starting to realize that eating meat is detrimental to the environment. And even though I'll always promote a vegan diet (not just for the earth either - but for the animals!), you don't have to stop eating meat altogether to help the environment. You can just eat less meat.

Eating Vegetarian is Taking Global Warming Personally

Thousands of injuries not counted by Pentagon

At least 20,000 U.S. troops who were not classified as wounded during combat in Iraq and Afghanistan have been found with signs of brain injuries...

The data... show that about five times as many troops sustained brain trauma as the 4,471 officially listed by the Pentagon through Sept. 30. These cases also are not reflected in the Pentagon's official tally of wounded, which stands at 30,327.

20,000 troops not being listed as injuries from the war in Iraq is huge. The number of injuries and deaths is already too high, but this just shows that US leadership doesn't want us to know what the real number is. Their thinking is that if everything is going fine, we'll want to stay there; it's not working, but that's what they think.

From USAToday

Books not laptops

One Laptop per Child is a campaign to "provide children around the world with new opportunities to explore, experiment and express themselves" by distributing $100 laptops to kids in developing countries. The plan is to get people to buy laptops to send to places where education is lacking. When I first heard about this project, I thought it was interesting, but then I started thinking. Why go through all the trouble to give these kids laptops? After all, all of us know about computer problems. But what happens if the laptops break? They won't last forever.

Although there are advantages such as learning to use a computer in an increasingly digital world, it seems to me that books would be a better gift. They last longer, they're portable, probably more durable, and still offer education to kids that badly need it.

The media's roll in the presidency

All Things Democrat has a great post on how the media is essentially choosing the president for us. It's a little long but it's a great read.

Are the Media Choosing the Next President?

They're right on the point. They are choosing our next president. A lot of Americans trust the media to give them the truth, and they don't think that maybe they should get a second opinion.

What else would you expect?

UnHolyWars has a post about how "Afghanistan is fast slipping back into the hands of the Taliban."

Senior British and U.S. military commanders privately admit that the situation in the country is becoming from bad to worse.

That's what happens when you start a second war in the middle of the first one. Afghanistan has been left behind in the dust of Iraqi oil shipments.

Executed for international calls

A North Korean factory boss accused of making international phone calls was executed by a firing squad in front of 150,000 people, it emerged today...

Its citizens are banned from communicating with the outside world, part of the regime's authoritarian policies seeking to prevent any challenge to the iron-fisted rule of Kim Jong II...

The communist country insists it does not violate human rights...

Yikes! This is insane. It's so hard for me, as an American, to imagine living in a country like this, where you have no freedom at all. Even though I think the threat of a North Korean nuclear attack on the West or South Korea is slim since it would enter them into a war they could not win, something major needs to be done for their human rights violations. Sanctions were placed on North Korea because of their nuclear weapons programs; I think it's time they're sanctioned for their harsh treatment of citizens.

Source: Daily Mail

Brilliant Bird

http://view.break.com/403364 - Watch more free videos

Why is China in the UN?

Here is the a piece of the Charter of the United Nations:
WE THE PEOPLES OF THE UNITED NATIONS DETERMINED

• to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, which twice in our lifetime has brought untold sorrow to mankind, and
• to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person, in the equal rights of men and women and of nations large and small, and
• to establish conditions under which justice and respect for the obligations arising from treaties and other sources of international law can be maintained, and
• to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom

Tibet?

A lesson from Slovenia's hermit president

After Slovenia's president, Janez Drnovsel was diagnosed with terminal cancer, he became a hermit, moving to a mountain retreat and becoming a totally different person. Since this change, the Slovenian people see him as a great man. Here are a few bits from the Times Online article:

Drnovsek says that his conversion from conventional politician into "Slovenia's Gandhi" - as one commentator has dubbed him - was gradual, and he adopted a low profile as he fought his illness. He abandoned conventional medicine because his doctors told him that they could not cure him. He dabbled with Indian and Chinese healers. He gave up meat, dairy products and alcohol in favour of organic vegetables and home-baked bread. he fasted for days at a time. He also sought to nourish his soul, leaving Ljubljana for a remote home set in beautiful beech forests south of the Slovenian capital. He lives there alone, reading and writing, without so much as a television for company since his dog died. He says modern man has lost contact with nature, but it is "very beneficial for health, for body but also for soul...Somehow we can purify ourselves of all negativities that are concentrated in towns and urban centres where there is all this activity and stress."

And a quote that we should all be able to learn something from:

"When you are confronted with the perception of the end of your life, it's an opportunity to look at things from a different point of view, to change priorities and establish a distance to this daily existence and all these material developments that you are taught are so important."

Quickies

Giant Sea Scorpion Discovered; Was Bigger Than a Man
"The size of a large crocodile, the 390-million-year-old sea scorpion was the top predator of its day, slicing up fish and cannibalizing its own kind in coastal swamp waters, fossil experts say."

First biological weapons: 3300 years ago

Trophy Hunting May Push Polar Bears to "Tipping Point"
Polar bear populations are already sinking due to global warming, but now they're facing a new threat.

Climate change has quadrupled natural disasters in just 20 years! Study

Fox vs. Fred Thompson

I usually don't praise Republicans, mainly because there's usually few positive qualities about them (I know that's trivializing an entire group of people, but I'm pretty much just talking about those Republicans high up in American politics), but I'm happy to hear Republican Presidential hopeful Fred Thompson bringing up FOX's bias. Here's the YouTube video:

Boycotting "Made in China"

All the many, many recalls of Chinese made products has led some people to boycott the "Made in China" label because the fear for their own safety and that of their children. But as this article from The China Game points out, Mattel's sales actually went up! Before I get into why people aren't boycotting companies like Mattel, here's a bit of what The China Game's Paul Midler had to say:

"Where is the incentive to avoid product failures if no one suffers? Executives are actually being patted on the back for their handling of the crisis."

That's a really good point. As long as everything's going well for the company, they aren't going to change. Money is the most influential entity in the world, and boycotting a product is sometimes the best and loudest way to make a change.

Now, as for why people aren't boycotting Chinese made products after all the serious problems connected to them, it really comes down to people having to change habits and do something that isn't quite as easy as they'd like it to be. Most people don't want to be bothered into doing something that takes time and effort. Checking out companies and products to find out where they're made is troublesome sometimes. This is the same reason we see people not changing their energy-consuming habits, it's even an argument I've heard time and again about why someone's not a vegetarian even though they'd like to be. "It's just too hard". Americans are lazy. Until we're inspired enough to take a stand and refuse to by that toy with lead paint nothing is going to change.

If you want to boycott China, head over to Boycott Made in China. Granted, it's based on Tibetan Freedom, but it's useful nonetheless.

TeleFlip

This sounds like a cool tool even if it's not one I would personally use. TeleFlip lets you receive your emails as text messages for free (unless you don't have unlimited text messages from whatever company you have - be careful with that). This would be a great tool for someone that travels a lot without a computer.

Personally, I've never been big on phones with web access. Part of it's that I'm a penny-pincher and I hate paying for things I don't need, but mostly it's that I don't want to turn it to one of those people. You know, bluetooth headset, obsessively checking email, running around frantically. I like having a normal life and online life that are separate from one another.

Back from break

I hope everyone had a good holiday and ate lots of tofurky.

I can finally get back to blogging and going through my thousands of posts in my feed reader (literally, when I got to school this morning and checked I had almost exactly 2000 posts to read - although I don't actually read most of them).

There's going to be some good posts coming up. Remember when I said I'd profile every presidential candidate? Well, I haven't forgotten. Look for installment 2 in a couple of days. I've also decided to write about Hiroshima/Nagasaki and a few other things. I'm also adding a new feature to this blog called "Monday Spotlight". I had an old blog called LiberalPanda that I did this on and really liked it. I'll be writing about great blogs, websites, resources, and people. So subscribe!

namaste

Happy Early Tofurky Day!

I'm going home tomorrow and I won't be back until Sunday night, so don't expect anything between now and then. I might post a thing to two tomorrow, but I'm not sure.

Anyway, here's two of my favorite Monty Python sketches. Fun fact: John Cleese wrote The Upper Class Twit of the Year Awards after his neighbors woke him up a couple of times.

The Babbit and the Bromide

Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly

Climate change

An article from the BBC says that "climate change will reverse decades of social and economic progress across Asia". I highly recommend the article.

Reading it brought something else to my mind, something I've thought often enough about, but that I try to push away. I fear that global warming is already out of hand. We've seen so many reports and scientists saying that if we don't act now, it'll be too late. They've been saying that for a couple of years now. So what are we doing? Little to nothing. I'll admit that there have been some changes, but nothing drastic. I understand that businesses and governments alike put economics before anything else, including the state of the world at large, but it's time to realize that in this case we can't wait for renewable energy to be profitable. If something isn't done now, it's going to be even less profitable.

I'm worried that in 10 years it really will be too late. The only progress really being made at the grassroots level, and I'm not optimistic enough to say that'll solve all our problems, because in reality, it won't. The governments of this world's nations need to set the ball rolling on renewable energy and doing some good for the future generations. We have a tendency, especially in America, to tune out those things we don't want to hear, and we're also extremely lazy in that we want climate change to fix itself so we don't have to make an effort.

If things stay the way they are, things aren't going to get better.

Where is our recycled e-waste really going?

From the Associated Press:

"While there are no precise figures, activists estimate that 50 to 80 percent of the 300,000 to 400,000 tons of electronics collected for recycling in the U.S. each year ends up overseas. Workers in countries such as China, India and Nigeria then use hammers, gas burners and their bare hands to extract metals, glass and other recyclables, exposing themselves and the environment to a cocktail of toxic chemicals.

'It's being recycled, but it's being recycled in the most horrific way you can imagine,' said Jim Puckett of the Basel Action Network, the Seattle-based environmental group that tipped off Hong Kong authorities. 'We're preserving our own environment, but contaminating the rest of the world.'"

When I was growing up someone in my family told me that you shouldn't bother recycling because they usually just threw it away anyway. Obviously I don't believe that anymore, but the thought that the materials I'm recycling aren't betting the status of our environment frightens me. E-waste presents a plethora of problems, and in this consumer age we're in it's just going to get worse. There's many more gadgets on the market than ever before, and when something new comes out, say the iPhone for example, everyone's old stuff gets tossed aside. One major problem it that it's impossible to convince people not to buy that new toy.

I don't know how, but it's obvious that someone needs to come up with a plan for better management of our electronic waste.