August 4, 2006
I agree with what you said 
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polteentidbits
2006-08-05 09:05 am (local) (link) 
| OK. Most soldiers are heroes and a few are not.
And moms who take care of their kids are heroes, but moms that don’t are NOT. Who is your hero?
Rachel ([info]choco_rachel) wrote, |
August 3, 2006
The New York Time wrote an editorial about the Distinguished Service Medal that was awarded to the general who brought torture practices from Guantanamo Bay to Afghanistan and Iraq. Bush awards lots of medals to people who get things wrong and who hurt our country, and I wonder if my generation will ever have heroes in government like other generations always have. What do you think? Who is in government now or running for office that we will be able to call heroes.
—-Freckles
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/03/opinion/edit-3-thu.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
Editorial
Dishonorable Service
Article Tools Sponsored By
Published: August 3, 2006
What happens to a general who turns a military detention camp into a center for the torment of prisoners, and then keeps exporting those vile practices to other U.S. prisons until their exposure sickens the world? If the general wor
ks under President Bush, he is whitewashed of any blame, protected from even the mildest reprimand, and, finally, retires honorably with the military’s highest noncombat medal pinned to his chest.
By now, we shouldn’t be all that surprised at the treatment of Maj. Gen. Geoffrey D. Miller, the Guantánamo Bay commandant who helped organize interrogation centers in Afghanistan and at Abu Ghraib.
After all, Mr. Bush has promoted the civilians who formulated the policies behind illegal detention and prisoner abuse. And he awarded the highest civilian honor to George Tenet, who either bungled the intelligence on Iraq or helped the White House hype it, and Paul Bremer, whose post-invasion mismanagement helped foment the bloody chaos in Iraq.
But there was something especially appalling about the ceremony on Monday in which General Miller got the Distinguished Service Medal in — of all places — the Pentagon’s Hall of Heroes. The medal is for “exceptionally meritorious service to the government” beyond the performance of duty.
We hope the Pentagon had something in mind beyond putting prisoners into painful positions for hours or threatening them with German shepherds. Surely they were not thinking of naked men in pyramids or posed with electric wires on their genitals.
This sorry tale dishono
rs the real heroes. If the Pentagon wanted to honor them, it could have chosen the military lawyers who tried to stop the Bush administration from scrapping the Geneva Conventions and trying to put places like Guantánamo Bay beyond the rule of law. Or it could just look to the front line in Iraq, where heroes put their lives on the line every day — and all too often lose them.
August 2, 2006
Comments from readers on Wednesday’s blog:
| choco_rachel 2006-08-02 09:55 pm (local) (link) |
| My friend Grace moved back to New Orleans around February, and she says that it’s quite a mess still. And it really doesn’t help that quite a good chunk of people who received money from FEMA spent it on Hooters & porn.
I’m actually part of a political b If you want to blog along with us, you can e-mail the editor BEN at ben@benjamingoodman.com |
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polteentidbits 2006-08-02 10:13 pm (local) (link) |
| I really like your site!
My friend Grace moved back to New Orleans around February, and she says that it’s quite a mess still. And it really doesn’t help that quite a good chunk of people who received money from FEMA spent it on Hooters & porn. |
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polteentidbits 2006-08-02 10:16 pm (local) (link) |
| Hi Choco Rachel
Why aren’t yo —Freckles http://www.powersandmorrison.com/Blogs-MainPages/Blogs-Freckles.html (Reply to this)(Parent) (Thread) |
|
choco_rachel 2006-08-03 10:49 am (local) (link) |
You can call me Rachel 
Well, I’m actually going to San Antonio today to ask people who they’re planning on voting for and whether they even know who Chris Bell is. The problem is that nobody knows his name, and we might as well help support a less-than-perfect candidate than one who is so unknown that there’s nothing to help him, even the 3% of votes he’s going to get. I haven’t done much research on Carol Keeton Strayhorn or Rick Perry, but I know that since Rick Perry was basically appointed by George W. Bush, we can’t trust him. So that leaves us with Strayhorn. I suppose I’d better do some more research…. |
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From a “grownup”…nah, I’ll NEVER grow up! (Anonymous) 2006-08-03 12:06 pm (local) (link)  |
| Great blog. I’d like to commend our future leaders here for caring enough to even think about service to your fellow citizens. The response by the administration to the Katrina disaster is just one more example of their incompetence but more so, of their genuine lack of compassion. When you raise awareness of this, as you have by writing and looking for ways to help, THAT’S compassion…THAT’S empathy…THAT’S what citizenship is about as well as action. All of you give me hope for the future. Thank you. Rkymtnmary |
How many of us helped out or gave money during hurricane Katrina? Probably most of us, right? But tons of the people who lost their houses and their things are still not OK yet. They have nowhere to go home to in Mississippi and Louisiana and they can’t find jobs there. FEMA gave them smelly trailers (if they have anything) and a lot are still living in tents. The government isn’t doing much and the money that Americans gave last year is running out.
I am going to start a collection at my high school to give to the organizations that ARE rebuilding Louisiana and Mississippi, and I hope you can too. Next week I will post a list at this site of some of
those organizations.
Please write to your congress representatives and senators and tell them we can’t forget about the people who are still suffering because of the hurricane and the floods. You don’t have to tell them how old you are, but you do have to have a zip code in their region for them to listen to you.
Click on the word Wednesday at the top of this post if you want to offer other ideas about how we can keep remembering the PEOPLE whose lives were changed from Katrina. —Freckles
August 2, 2006
Are we there for oil to get more expensive? Are we there so Bush can eventually go to Iraq? Are we there because Bush’s friends needed new no-bid contracts? Are we there for a permanent place in the mid-east? I don’t have any idea. But it had nothing to do with Saddam.
August 1, 2006
Hi!!
This is a great place for teens to ask political questions, discuss politics, and get our voices heard. And …. if you want …. you adults out there can ask us questions if you want.
First question —–
What kind of country is this generation going to leave to our generation?
I will post answers as well.
Click on the word WELCOME above to post an answer, or send an email to Freckles in the box on the right.
