Now that the race for the mansion is over, and our pro-business, pro-life and fairly socially conservative Democrat has defeated our pro-business, pro-life and socially conservative Republican, the time has come to speak of other things.
While most of the news here in chemical country has been focused on the “Woman vs. Indian” showdown and those wacky BCS computers, the folks in Washington have, not surprisingly, been going about their business. Lest their politicking – which undoubtedly affects us more than St. Nick or Ms. Kathleen ever will – goes unnoticed, I’ll offer a few observations of the Beltway boys to ease the gubernatorial overkill.
Shockingly, there is good news to report, so we’ll start there. As we remember, President Bush made a bold pledge in January’s State of Union address, promising $15 billion to fight African AIDS. The pledge was viewed as admirable, but dismissed by many as political opportunism, as there was little doubt that billions for AIDS would be difficult to scrounge up in our current fiscal environment.
Just yesterday, however, the House and Senate agreed to fund $2.4 billion of the total pledge in the upcoming year. Not only is this a step toward fighting the AIDS epidemic in developing countries, but it is actually $400 million more than even Bush suggested for this year.
Despite throwing money to needy folks abroad, President Bush is not as concerned with the cash his own citizens will lose under a proposed Department of Labor overtime overhaul. Seizing on the need to update some of DOL’s regulations, Bush has tried to hammer through provisions that will cause more than 9 million American workers to lose their right to overtime pay, according to Economic Policy Institute estimates.
When Bush first proposed his plan in March, it was met with outcry from labor groups and average-Joe workers across the country. Since then, both the House and Senate have passed measures intended to block the new revisions, citing the erosion of the 40-hour workweek and compensated overtime that would follow its implementation.
Not one to back down from a fight, the GOP circled the wagons. When a House-Senate joint committee was created to iron out differences on the issue, House leadership stacked it with ultra-right business folks who, like Bush, saw how much it would benefit the fat cats to not actually have to pay their employees overtime. It now appears that despite a majority of Congressmen opposing the plan, it could live to see the light of day.
As if that wasn’t nauseating enough, our final story is one that should be burning up the airwaves and newsprint of the world – but instead has become yet another forgotten tale of collateral damage in the War on Terror. It’s the story of Maher Arar, a Syrian-born Canadian, who has been living north of the border with his family for the past 15 years.
Arar was misidentified by the Canadian government and placed on terror list, which was then shared with United States authorities. On his way to Montreal, he stopped over at JFK, where his name was seen on a list and he was detained.
Unfortunately, he wasn’t a terrorist, and the Canadian government has since issued apologies and begun investigating the process which led them to add his name.
However, American officials not only detained Arar, they didn’t even turn him over to Canadian authorities. Instead, using tactics that should make us all “Proud to be American,” our authorities flew him to Jordan under U.S. guard, and turned him over to Syria.
For the next 10 months the Canadian family man was held in Syria, forced to live in a grave-like cell, showered with cat urine, physically tortured and forced to sign self-incriminating statements.
The best way to term this would be “outsourcing torture,” which is exactly what we’ve been doing more and more of since Sept. 11. It is a truly sickening practice to turn over our detainees to nations we constantly condemn for their human rights abuses.
The CIA even has a name for it – “extraordinary rendition” – and this tactic has become a favorite tool in the war on terror. One senior intelligence official told the Washington Post, “We are doing a number of them, and they have been very productive.”
God Bless America