COMMENTS POSTED TO AN ARTICLE BY CHELSEA MANNING IN THE
GUARDIAN
Chelsea Manning, you bring up something I suspect a lot of
people outside the United States do not know.
Prisoners there generally lose their right to vote.
This is no small matter because the United States has more
people in prison than any other country.
It is a barbaric and anti-democratic practice, but then so
is much of what is done by the United States.
Especially what they have done to you.
____________________________
Response to another
reader’s comment:
Ralph Nader was one of the finest candidates in the history
of the US.
You only perpetuate the ugly political duopoly with your
attitude.
Yes, I'm well aware of what you are saying, but it is false.
First, Al Gore lost the election because of Al Gore.
He was a terrible candidate who did not fight for what is
right. He let Bush win.
Moreover, he was extraordinarily ineffective against Bush in
debate, yet Bush was the closest the country ever had to a moron in office.
Mostly, in fact, there is no real difference between
America's two parties, and it makes little difference who wins.
But this year is different.
Why?
A genuine outsider has hi-jacked a major old line party, and
he has some views which are refreshing and a few that are almost revolutionary.
Hence, the establishment's solid phalanx against him.
And Hillary? Well, this is case of everything unpleasant the
American establishment has represented for decades.
All wrapped up in an image which would fit nicely into
Madame Tussaud's old Chamber of Horrors.
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Response to a reader’s
comment:
Idiot comment.
Many countries do not strip criminals of the right to vote.
Canada, for one.
Why should they?
It is a barbaric practice by the United States.
If something is a fundamental right, how can you just
high-handedly remove it because someone's done something judged wrong in court?
Democracy doesn’t stop because someone steals something.
Of course, I forget, the United States does a lot of such
things.
The CIA Torture Gulag, of which Guantanamo was only a part,
sure did honor fundamental human rights, didn't it?
No lawyers allowed, at least for a long while.
Torture just fine.
Child soldiers as prisoners.
Kangaroo courts.
Shackles.
And all done on someone else's stolen property.
Guantanamo is Cuba's, grabbed from Cuba in the
deliberately-created Spanish-American War, and they've asked for its return
many times. They are simply ignored.
Oh, boy, when it comes to rights and law, the United States
is so often found wanting.
