Jaligard's Blog

Jaligard Commented on Rep. Doggett: If Health Care Supporters Don't Speak Up, Insurance Companies Will Win by Rachel Slajda

2009-08-04T20:57:18Z

Doggett has basically summarized for me everything I hate about the Democratic Party.

The Democrats have run on Health Care for as long as I've been voting (1992). It's part of their platform. Now they have the votes to pass whatever Health Care reform they can imagine and they can't summon the courage to vote for it because people are yelling at them?

They ran on stopping the war in 2006, then caved. If they cave here, how do they ever expect to win another election? "Vote for us. We won't do anything we say we'll do, but we're not as bad as the other guys...unless they yell at us, and we'll totally do whatever they say."

Dogget, you're a Texan. Grow a pair!

Jaligard Commented on Push Poll in Colorado by Deb T

2009-07-13T20:24:38Z

Still. They are at it still.

Jaligard Commented on A Simple Solution to a Difficult Problem by Jaligard

2009-01-16T19:14:15Z

If we can determine that they are not a threat, they can be released in any number of ways:

"Prisoners of war may be partially or wholly released on parole or promise, in so far as is allowed by the laws of the Power on which they depend. Such measures shall be taken particularly in cases where this may contribute to the improvement of their state of health. No prisoner of war shall be compelled to accept liberty on parole or promise." —Geneva Convention relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War

And they're in an unacceptable and unconstitutional situation NOW, anyways. The options we're looking into now are pretty much all going to be a vile interpretation of the American justice system.

Ideally, we could take this to the U.N. and addend the Geneva Convention to account for terrorists that don't fit into the justice system—and do it in a way that doesn't rob them of due process.

Jaligard Commented on A Simple Solution to a Difficult Problem by Jaligard

2009-01-16T09:24:55Z

I think your first two objections are splitting hairs. For most intents and purposes, this is considered a war even if it is not one that we explicitly declared through Congress (a rarity these days). We didn't declare war against Iraq and we considered prisoners taken their as POWs (as required by Convention)—even if we did mistreat them.

And while wars are traditionally against states, the world isn't a static place and we shouldn't be beholden to a semantic technicality.

We need to figure out what to do with these prisoners and the answer is right there. Treat them the way we would treat any other prisoners in an armed conflict: humanely and yet protected and secured away.

The only reason I can see that we are not obligated to do so by treaty now is that we are fighting an enemy that doesn't abide by the rules of warfare. And we can just be the bigger person and ignore that.

Jaligard recommended Obama First Candidate Charged With Being "Too Presidential," and Some Numbers to Brighten Up Your Monday Morning by Big Blue

2008-08-04T15:21:45Z