Personal - Politics

OT (personal) - Pity the Nation

Issam Elbaytam — Fri, 21 Jan 2005 14:05:00 GMT

I picked up the Pity the Nation book after reading about it in Migeul's blog, I started reading it last night. It is an eye witness report by Robert fisk of the civil war and the 1982 Israeli invasion. It started off as an intriguing read because I recognized many of the places that he talks about, I was born in Beirut.

To my shock or horror, I get to Chapter 9, pages 282-285 and they detail an eye witness account - by Terry Anderson, the AP reporter and hostage in lebanon for a number of years- of the death of three second cousins of mine during the 1982 Israeli invasion. I had heard of their death - I have not lived in Beirut since 1979- at the time, but it was horrific to read about how they died. He describes the death of Ahmad Baitam 3 year old from resporitory failure caused by phosphorus burns in his lungs. His two five-day old twin brothers and 4.5 year old brother died of similar wounds the day before. The doctor treating them said: “I had to take the babies and put them in buckets of water to put out the flames, when i took them half an hour later they were still burning. Even in the motuary, they smoldered for hours". When they took them the next morning for burial they again burst into flames.

Phosphorus artillary was first used in WWI, the phosphorus smoke lingers and causes internal burns that continue to smolder and are almost impossible to treat once it gets into the lungs.

The harsh reality of Arafat's Legacy

Issam Elbaytam — Fri, 12 Nov 2004 21:41:00 GMT

Tom Friedman sums up the life of Arafat in this op-ed column. I personally never liked Arafat because of what he's done (or not done) to the Palestinian people. While we may never know the truth about his millions it is a fact that his tenure in the occupied territories has not improved the lives of the millions living there. Friedman sums it up perfectly in his column when he says

His obsession was with Palestinian ‘‘land’’, not Palestinian ‘‘life’’

Arafat has created more security apparatuses and built more prisons than schools and hospitals.

Today, after watching his final send-off, I grieve for what he represented NOT the person he was. I hope the millions of Palestinians keep their cause and plight for freedom alive by choosing wisely and demanding a better and more responsible leadership that cherishes their lives and gives them the future they deserve.

Election 2004

Issam Elbaytam — Thu, 04 Nov 2004 11:26:00 GMT

I got an email from a colleague who worked on getting out the vote for Kerry on Tue. I was startled by his account of a couple of incidents he saw while going door-to-door.

Going door to door I talked to a man who thought the United States should nuke Iraq. When I tried to explain that there were a lot of innocent people in Iraq, he told me that they were all terrorists and that that is what they get for attacking us on September 11th.

Also my Aunt is a proud Bush supporter (Ohio) because he is liberating Iraq from the Communists.

Whoa!

Overall, I think this election was for the democrats to loose. I voted for Nader because I did not think the democrats offered a good alternative. They need to reflect and focus their message to gain support in one of the close states, I think their best bet is in the southwest and possibly one of the close ones in the mid-west. The south is most-likely lost forever. The northeast and west elite democrats will never reach people in the south.

Vote 2004 - Done

Issam Elbaytam — Tue, 02 Nov 2004 17:22:00 GMT

I just got back from voting. As I mentioned before, this was my first time voting and I didn't know what to expect. However, it was very easy, I did not wait in line at all. In an out in 10 minutes.

I don't know what the fuss is about with the voting process. It couldn't have been any easier. My county uses optical scanners for voting where you connect the two ends of a line, very straight forward.

There were few Bush supporters outside, didn't see any for Kerry. My state -NC- is going solid for Bush. As I also mentioned before, I did vote for Nader (I had to write it in, he is not on the ballot here) , on principle. Nader -I think- was the only honest vote in this race. I feel good about my first vote, I didn't have to compromise and vote for Kerry just because I am against Bush. It was easy because NC is pretty much Bush-country. I would have thought harder about it had I lived in any of the battle states such as OH, FL, MI, ..

Vote 2004: a test

Issam Elbaytam — Sat, 23 Oct 2004 09:17:00 GMT

Philip is wondering about last-minute-voters and makes an interesting point. I heard an impressive speech from Ralph Nader once. He said that if Americans used sports-fan methods for the election this country would be a hundred times better. He said that sports-fans keep so much information about players, teams, managers, stats and so on, but voters are more casual about the most important decision a citizen makes for the country.

This year will be my first time to vote and I've spent so much time over the past year listening to debates, researching the candidates and hearing from others. I think I understand what Nader was talking about. The pundits spend hours talking about a single irrelevant sound bite instead of focusing on the issues. And candidates get away with answering almost nothing on where they stand and spend more time on attacking the other candidates.

Political Ads

Issam Elbaytam — Wed, 20 Oct 2004 03:39:00 GMT

p2p-politics released the ads made by citizens for move-on.org, some of these people are extremely talented. These are my favorite:

Ralph Nader on Criticizing Israel and Anti-Semitism

Issam Elbaytam — Tue, 19 Oct 2004 09:07:00 GMT

In his letter Ralph tells the story of an Israeli pilot who refused to contribute to the killing of Palestinian civilians. This quote is very telling of the views and policies of the IDF.

In the discussion of my dismissal, I asked General Halutz if he would allow the firing of missiles from an Apache helicopter on a car carrying wanted men, if it were traveling in the streets of Tel Aviv, in the knowledge that that action would hurt innocent civilians who happened to be passing at the time. In answer, the general gave me his list of relative values of people, as he sees it, from the Jewish person who is superior down to the blood of an Arab which is inferior. As simple as that.

In Palestine and in Iraq thousands of civilians have died, they are never officially counted and are referred to as "Collateral Damage". They are not counted because they don't matter.

Jon Stewart on CNN

Issam Elbaytam — Sat, 16 Oct 2004 13:14:00 GMT

Jon Stewart of the Daily Show - which I love to watch- was on CNN's CrossFire -which I also like. The exchange was absolutely hilarious. Jon raised an issue that is important to all pundit shows, they don't really have constructive debates, instead they bring these people to mouth off their standard sound bites and never answer a question. They should keep hammering until they get an honest answer. Chris Mathews does some of that on HardBall but we need more, much more, we need straight answers.

The Presidential Debates

Issam Elbaytam — Wed, 06 Oct 2004 07:55:00 GMT

Hi, my name is Issam, and I am a political junkie. This election season is a great opportunity for me to feed my addiction.

I just watched the VP debate and the pundits commentaries that followed. It was amazing how the pundits saw the debate. Most saw Dick Cheney as the victor and all I saw is continued evasiveness and absurd logic when responding to questions about Iraq. I thought that Edwards at the very least stood his grounds against the VP and I think the average American believed him more than they did Cheney.

I checked the instant polls on all news sites (CNN, CBS, fox, msnbc) and it seems that many people share my opinion in declaring Edwards as the winner despite what the pundits say.

Political: Top 22 Reasons to vote for George W. Bush

Issam Elbaytam — Fri, 17 Sep 2004 19:59:00 GMT

Hilarious. LOL

[Via: Todd Berman]

Although these are numbered, they are in no particular order.

You wake up in November hating the entire world.
You always wanted to move to Canada, and the draft could be just the impetus you needed.
You determine the leader of America based on how good they look in a fireman's hat.
You need to know just how long his administration can go before it turns Powell into it's latest scapegoat.
You want to see just how high this deficit can get before someone in the White House admits we have a problem.
You can't get enough of that wacky National Security Advisor's latest hijinks.
You live in Florida, because you figure if your vote isn't going to count, you might as well vote for the predetermined winner.
Your hope that maybe if he wins this time, his father will jump out of the plane without a parachute this time.
Another four years of neo-conservatives can't be worse than the first four.
You think future presidents doing cocaine at Camp David is totally a good idea, and want to make sure Bush's daughters get more chances to prove how 'presidential' they can be.
For some reason, the youth of America has always bothered you, and you would like to see more of their innocent lives lost in a pointless conflict.
After 4 years of wonderfully funny flash animations, you have no idea how you can spend 8 hours at work without humour at George Bush's expense.
He may have caused most of the rest of the world to lose what little respect it still had for America, but at least he didn't sleep with his intern.
If George Bush is good enough for Jesus, he is good enough for you.
You live in Tennessee, just got your thumbs, are relatively unsure how to use them, and missed the button to vote Yes on Prop 742 - Alien Sterility/Dentistry Program (Homage to the late master of comedy).
Baby killing is good. Jodie Foster told you so.
Pat Buchanan isn't running and you want the next best thing. Helms/Buchanan in 08!
You are scared shitless.
You are unable to resist the temptation to vote for Dick/Bush...
Dick Cheney promised to show you his underground lair.
Only thing better than one car wreck is two car wrecks.
You were born mentally retarded.