Mary Ann Segal M.D.: Democrat for President '08

Mary Ann Segal MD is a Democratic candidate for President. In support of minor candidates, which add to the political discourse, here are scanned copies of a press release on her views.

Troop Faux Pas

On Tuesday, Barack Obama apologized for using the word "wasted" to refer to the lives of soldiers in a speech in Ames, Iowa.

"We ended up launching a war that should have never been authorized, and should never been waged, and on which we have now spent $400 billion, and have seen over 3,000 lives of the bravest young Americans wasted."

This faux pas is struck a similar cord as John Kerry's poor joke last November at Pasadena City College in which he said,

"You know education, if you make the most of it, you study hard, you do your homework, and you make an effort to be smart, you can do well. If you don't, you get stuck in Iraq."

This statement was unfounded according to a report by the Heritage Foundation, which shows that 98% of military enlistees have a high school diploma compared to 75% of the general population.

In both cases, the remarks have drawn quick criticism and quick apologies. The elephant in the room that no one is willing to talk about is the $466 billion US military budget that dwarfs all others in existence and any move that might be seen as not supporting the troops.

In the Senate, the debate over a non-binding resolution to increase troops in Iraq was stopped by a Republican filibuster last week. This week Democratic leaders in the House of Representatives face a similar challenge with their version of an Iraq resolution, and it will require wrangling moderate newcomers who are wary of casting any vote that might be seen as cutting off funding for the troops. All the while as Congress argues over non-binding resolutions, the White House as stated that there is enough money in the budget for President Bush to commit troops in Iraq with Congress possessing no viable way of stopping him.

Politically Incorrect Party Goes Awry with Blackface and Ku Klux Klan Costumes

Some students at Macalester College in St. Paul Minnesota threw a "politically incorrect" party, which has prompted an investigation due to one student being dressed as a Ku Klux Klan member and another wearing blackface with a noose around his neck. The party was supposed to be a satiric comment on "things that would be considered taboo in most situations."

This follows a string of incidents involving racially insensitive behavior at colleges. Students at Trinity College and Whitman College have also had parties where people have shown up in blackface. The Sigma Chi fraternity of John Hopkins was suspended after a "Halloween in the Hood" party displayed fake skeletons hanging from nooses, which also prompted President William Brody to introduce a new policy prohibiting "rude, disrespectful behavior".

At Texas A&M, a group of three students made a racist video in which a student in blackface is disciplined by a white student then mock whipped and sexually assualted. In an apology, one student said that the motivation behind the video was "intended to be a satirical spoof, much in the light of a Dave Chappelle or an SNL skit, and was an exercise in our home movie making skills."

Clarifying the Sixth Commandment: "Thou Shall Not Kill"

The theory of a Just War is the underpinning set of criteria which aids to determine if going to war is morally permissible, and specifies the circumstances in which the sixth commandment, "Thou Shall Not Kill", can be ignored. In 1993, the US Catholic Conference stated "Force may be used only to correct a grave, public evil, i.e., aggression or massive violation of the basic human rights of whole populations"

Below is a excerpt from an article in The Onion in which God holds a press conference to help clarify the sixth commandment, the "Don't Kill" rule. The complete article can be found here.

NEW YORK - Responding to recent events on Earth, God, the omniscient creator-deity worshipped by billions of followers of various faiths for more than 6,000 years, angrily clarified His longtime stance against humans killing each other Monday.

...

"I don't care how holy somebody claims to be," God said. "If a person tells you it's My will that they kill someone, they're wrong. Got it? I don't care what religion you are, or who you think your enemy is, here it is one more time: No killing, in My name or anyone else's, ever again."

...

"I tried to put it in the simplest possible terms for you people, so you'd get it straight, because I thought it was pretty important," said God, called Yahweh and Allah respectively in the Judaic and Muslim traditions. "I guess I figured I'd left no real room for confusion after putting it in a four-word sentence with one-syllable words, on the tablets I gave to Moses. How much more clear can I get?"

The Relationship Between Gas Prices and Tortillas

What happens when Americans want cheaper gas? Poor Mexicans starve. The price of tortillas has risen to 45 cents per pound in some areas of Mexico where the minimum wage is still less than US$5 dollars a day. A bushel (56 pounds) of corn has risen on the Chicago Board of Trade by over US$2 dollars since the end of 2005 to US$4 dollars; the US supplies about a quarter of Mexico's corn imports. This has been caused by the surge of interest in ethanol as an alternative fuel.

On Wednesday, tens of thousands of workers and farmers filled the central square of Mexico City to protest the spiraling food prices. Mexico's President Felipe Calderon announced a pact to freeze prices on January 18th, but the pact was with less than 10% of tortilla producers in the country. Left-wing parties joined the protesters and handed out ears of corn, which in itself has ramifications for the US as many Latin America countries have moved towards Leftists governments; the most recent of which was Ecuador with the inauguration of Rafael Correa on January 15th as Ecuador's President. For the left-wing parties, the issue of tortillas has become a new rallying point. Many of the Mexican protesters blame the government, one protester said "We’re here because the government always takes advantage of the poor. First it was tortillas, but we’re not stupid; if tortillas go up, everything else does too."

National Sanctity of Human Life Day, 2007

President Bush declared Sunday, January 21, 2007 National Sanctity of Human Life Day as a day to recognize America's commitment to respecting and protecting the life and dignity of every human being. The President's proclamation focused on protecting unborn children, but makes no mention of the abuses of Abu Gharib,
the state of emergency that victims of Katrina and Rita continue to face (400,000 continue to live in temporary housing),

a war on terrorism that continues to escalate with the US attacks on Somalia (US ground troops have been seen in the country),

or the US near-muted response towards violence in Darfur (Sudan breaks the cease-fire brokered by New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson).

Freshman Congressman to Rove: "I Kicked Your Ass"

Freshman Representative Steve Kagen told reporters he trapped Karl Rove in a bathroom and said "You’re in the White House and think you’re safe, huh? You recognize me? My name’s Dr. Multimillionaire and I kicked your ass". Kagen was in a bitter campaign with brutal attack ads and visits from Cheney and Rove.

One Man's Opinion

Former House Speaker and Representative from Georgia's 6th district, Newt Gingrich, made the following remark during a keynote speech at the Manchester Republican City Committee Christmas dinner concerning the removal of six Muslim imams from a US Airways flight after a passenger raised concerns about the imams evening prayers:

Those six people should have been arrested and prosecuted for pretending to be terrorists. And the crew of the U.S. airplane should have been invited to the White House and congratulated for being correct in the protection of citizens.

As of late, Gingrich hasn't been known for defending First Admendment rights. Speaking at the annual Nackey S. Loeb First Amendment award dinner celebrating individuals who stand up for freedom of speech, Gingrich stated that the US may require a "different set of rules" to prevent terrorists from using free speech to recruit and get their message out using the Internet.

In a "Special Comment" retort, MSNBC's Keith Olbermann compared Gingrich's ideas to to Nazism.

The Names of Deceased Iraqi Civilians

On December 12, 2005, President Bush put the number of deaths of Iraqi civilians at 30,000. Later, an estimate by the Hassan Salem of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI) put the figure at 150,000, while a study in the British medical journal The Lancet published in October puts the figure at 655,000. In all these estimates, the lives of these Iraqis have been turned into mere figures stripped of the hopes, ambitions, and the contributions these individuals might have made to a future Iraq. The image above presents the names of about 400 individuals gathered from a list created by Iraqi Body Count, which contains approximately 3,700 names. Individuals under 18 are highlighted in red, and the larger a name appears the younger the victim was.

Electronic Voting and Hacking Democracy

Election day is almost here, and as of this morning more that 191,000 absentee ballots have been requested by Maryland residents. The governor of the state called for the state to scrap its $106 million electronic voting apparatus and to use paper ballots; a plan that was rejected. The machines were manufactured by Diebold, a company who has come under attack for the integrity of its voting machines in an HBO documentary Hacking Democracy; Diebold unsuccessfully attempted to prevent the documentary from airing. The documentary is by the founder of Black Box Voting, Bev Harris, who has been questioning voting irregularities since the 2000 election in Florida when Al Gore received negative votes. Diebold has been known for its secretive nature refusing to release the computer source code installed in its machines. In Florida, a DUI charge was dismissed because a manufacturer refused to reveal more technical details about its breathalyzers. And late last month a former Democratic Maryland legislator Cheryl C. Kagan received three disks containing the Diebold source code, which were apparently stolen and the FBI is currently investigating.

A Browner America

Between July 1, 2004 and July 1, 2005, the US population grew by 2.8 million nearly half were Hispanics. Hispanic women typically have 3 children in their lifetime compared to the 1.8 for non-Hispanic whites and there are 8.2 Hispanic births for every Hispanic death. Forty-five percent of children under the age of 5 are from a racial or ethnic minority. Hispanic are the largest minority group in the US with 42.7 million growing at a rate of 3.3 percent compared to African-Americans 39.7 million growing at 1.3 percent. The non-Hispanic white population is growing at a rate of 0.3 percent.

La Bandera de Estrellas

Last week, Bush responded to the issue of the national anthem sung in Spanish saying "I think the national anthem ought to be sung in English. And I think people who want to be a citizen of this country ought to learn English, and they ought to learn to sing the national anthem in English."

But State Department's website features 4 versions of the national anthem in Spanish. The first version listed was created by Francis Haffkine Snow back in 1919. On last Sunday's "Face the Nation" on CBS, Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice said "I've heard the national anthem done in rap versions, country versions, classical versions. The individualization of the American national anthem is quite underway."

Freedom To Tag

Seven artists in NYC have sued over the city's strict anti-graffiti law banning individuals under 21 from possessing spray paint and broad-tipped markers. The group of artists is backed by fashion designer Marc Ecko. City Councilman Peter Vallone accuses the designer of using the lawsuit to promote recent Ecko's video game "Getting Up" In other recent promotion, Ecko recently created a video showing him tagging Air Force One with the words "Still Free".

Georgia Tech, Homosexuality, Religion, and Republicans

Ruth Malhotra and Orit Sklar, two members of the College Republicans filed a suit against Georgia Tech on March 16 claiming that the campus' gay-friendly Safe Space program "denigrate[s] religions that oppose [homosexual] behavior." The lawsuit states that the "Safe Space is a program explicitly infused with religious meaning and purpose, and is designed in part to advance a specific religious view of homosexual behavior." Neither political nor religious groups at Georgia Tech receive funding, while Safe Space does receive funding putting these groups at a disadvantage in terms of free speech according to the David French of Alliance Defense Fund, which is representing the students.

Golden Rule == Harassment

Wenyi Wang, was charged with "knowingly and willfully intimidating, coercing, threatening or harassing" Chinese President Hu during his White House visit. She crossed the line of 1st Amendment protected speech by yelling "Anything you have done will come back to you in this life," and "Your time is running out."

A Native American Hanukkah

Not quite the Hanukkah reception the White House had in mind. Time magazine has posted the first picture with Bush and Abramoff; it is less dramatic than one would hope. It was taken at a meeting in May 2001 in the Eisenhower Building next to the White House with Native American tribal leaders. The White House insisted Abramoff wasn't there.

Knee Replacement Surgery Is Painful

From the Wonkette:

On Wednesday, my physical therapy session in Silver Spring found Jack Abramoff on the table next to mine. Somehow I restrained myself from assaulting him -- I remembered the possibilty of his testimony.

My self-restraint was difficult. While I felt that it would be inappropriate for me to interfere with his health care, I cannot but think of the millions denied access to health care by the actions of the system that he financed; while I felt it wrong for me to violate his privacy, I thought of the privacy of us all violated by this administration that he did so much to bring to power; while I believe that he ought not be denied his rights, his accomplices have violated and eroded the rights of millions: he enjoys all the benefits of the civil society against which he conspired. And these people have the gall to suggest that Liberals hate America.

Jack was there because of his knee replacement operations. A painful procedure. He commented that they were hurting. Good.

A Night of Human-Animal Hybrids and Telling T-Shirts

There were few interesting moments of last night's State of the Union speech. The first occurred before the President's speech when Cindy Sheehan was thrown out of the House Chambers for wearing an anti-war t-shirt. Sheehan described the incident on Michael Moore's blog, the t-shirt read "2,245 Dead. How many more?". Sheehan plans on filing a First Amendment lawsuit for what happened. She wasn't alone, Republican congressman Bill Young's wife was also removed from the House chamber 45 minutes into the speech for wearing a shirt reading "Support the Troops: Defending Our Freedom." House rules prohibit demonstrations in the Capitol, but Bill Young later stated that he didn't believe wearing a t-shirt constituted a demonstration. Today, the Capitol police apologized to Sheehan and Beverly Young and dropped the charge of unlawful conduct.

Towards the end of the speech Bush said

"Tonight I ask you to pass legislation to prohibit the most egregious abuses of medical research, human cloning in all its forms, creating or implanting embryos for experiments, creating human-animal hybrids, and buying, selling or patenting human embryos."

Eighteen hours later, a website selling "Human-Animal Hybrid" t-shirts was created to help the President raise awareness about the terrible half-man/half beast creatures and the phrase "human-animal hybrids" gained acclaim on Technorati.

"The Impaler" Arrested

Vampyre gubernatorial candidate Jonathon "The Impaler" Sharkeyarrested Monday night on two felony counts from Indiana: one for escape, the other for stalking. The warrants were discovered when a dispatcher recognized Sharkey's pro wrestling name "Rocky Flash" was on one of the warrants.

Earlier: Satanist For MN Governor

A Long Walk

A US appeals court ruled against EFF co-founder, John Gilmore, after suing Southwest and United Airlines for not allowing him to board their flights without showing identification. While the right to travel is protected, Judge Paez wrote, "The Constitution does not guarantee the right to travel by any particular form of transportation." Another similar incident occurred last year. Deborah Davis of Arvada, CO was taken off a Regional Transportation District bus, handcuffed and ticketed for refusing to show identification when federal officers boarded the bus and asking for ID.