July 1, 2008 by Jay Taber.

Two summers ago, Obama was lauding Nixon’s foreign policy. Two weeks ago it was Reagan’s foreign policy he praised. Today he expressed his gratitude to Reagan for curbing the excesses of the 60s and 70s.

To sum up, the Democratic candidate for President of the United States finds merit in murdering 3 million Vietnamese, 1 million Central American Indians and peasants, and in denying the merit of the civil rights, free speech, and anti-war movements.

How can McCain possibly top Obama’s yuppie bellicosity?

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July 1, 2008 by Jay Taber.

My mother and I were born in Seattle on Duwamish land adjacent to Lake Washington. Chief Seattle’s descendants and relatives once fished Sockeye salmon where my grandmother taught swimming.

Along Seattle’s extensive waterfront, there were ninety Duwamish longhouses when they signed the 1855 Treaty of Point Elliott, yet it took the tribe until 2001 to get the federal government to acknowledge their existence. Later that year, the new federal administration withdrew this long overdue recognition of federal responsibility and obligations, obliterating the status of the Duwamish and six other tribes.

Today, the Duwamish continue their struggle to provide for their people and hold the federal government accountable for the promises made to Chief Seattle and his fellow indigenous negotiators in exchange for the lands we all enjoyed. My family wishes them well.

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