News and Notes: Security, Economy, and Religious Intolerance

Here are a couple of stories that should be dominating headlines this week:

If nothing else, the United States' actions in the Middle East were supposed to make Americans more secure right? This is the common argument from conservatives who defend the administration. Well, two stories I read today make me feel anything but secure when it comes to my safety and my civil rights. First, on the front page of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel there is a story about how Al-Qaida is extending their network into Algeria. These Algerian militants have been “reinvigorated with fresh recruits and a zeal for Western targets.” This story proves that the United States’ reactions to 9-11 have only strengthened Osama Bin Laden’s ability to bring “local militants under the al-Qaida brand.” When asked why his group merged with al-Qaida, the Algerian militant leader cited religious reasons: “If the U.S. administration sees that its war against the Muslims is legitimate, then what makes us believe that our war on its territories is not legitimate?” Again this reinforces the obvious fact that this war is a war of ideas, and as long as America maintains its imperialistic foreign policy, its going to be easier and easier to recruit pissed off Muslims who make it their life's cause to wage a holy war.

I came across another story in a segment of Democracy Now! that discussed what are being called “Terrorist Liaison Officers” or TLO’s. These individuals are people who have access to the community who are trained as watchdogs for terrorist activity. They can range from police officers to utility personnel. They are trained to look for a host of suspicious activities that includes “taking pictures that don’t seem to have any aesthetic value.” Ultimately this means that a lot of innocent people are going to find themselves on lists kept in secret government databases. Once on these lists, who knows what further happens to their civil liberties. The syllabus for training these TLOs has been kept confidential thus far. TLOs have been deployed in 8 states including Wisconsin. There is an official website for the organization at tlo.org. The website is pretty much a scare factory where citizens can report leads on suspected terrorist activity. You have to check this out; I couldn’t fucking believe it. Big Brother anyone?

Besides security, the economy has been the other dominant criteria for judging the state of the union. It’s no secret that our economy is in a "slowdown" (or whatever euphemism conservatives try to attach to recession today). Many economists believe that savings and consumer debt are important barometers of current and future economic health. Well, since President Bush has been in office, our national savings have gone from 6% to 1 % of the Gross Domestic Product, and consumer debt has climbed from $8 trillion to $14 trillion. See Thomas Friedman's op-ed "The No. 1 issue for November."

Finally, on a side note, Barack Obama and his campaign managers need to take a lesson from Jerry Seinfeld and George Costanza. Remember the episode where everyone thinks they are gay and they always reply, “We are not gay…not that there’s anything wrong with that.” This episode is poking fun at political correctness as it were but it is relevant in today’s political landscape. Because the political system in this country is a joke and Americans are programmed to fear difference (and really do), Barack Obama has been demonized by the right for being a “secret Muslim.” All Obama has done is refute these accusations without taking the time to point out that there’s obviously nothing wrong with being a Muslim. For more on this, there was a great op-ed in the Journal Sentinel today by Leonard Pitts from the Miami Herald called “Obama disappoints in relations with Muslims.” I’ve been angered by this for quite some time so this piece was refreshing. How would Judeo-Christians feel if, God forbid, they were a religious minority (I know it’s impossible to imagine), and politicians were forced to treat their religion as if it were leprosy in order to get elected in the country they called home?