NOW THAT WE'VE GOT YOUR ATTENTION...

Sorry, I am new here and do not want to sound critical. Obviously, all your propositions should be in the forefront of every progressive pledge.

However, I cannot miss to see that the huge issue of energy and environment is totally absent from your pledge. I happen to think that nothing will move in this country if there is not a move toward non carbon-based energy sources (both on a economical, social (health issues,....), and foreign policy level).

I am wondering what this absence is reflective of?

I should have finished to read before I posted that. I see that it is in the TAXES section. I guess it is the main point for me and I was expecting to find that as a single line.

Apologies.

4. MAKE EVERY VOTE COUNT: Guarantee the complete security and verifiability of the voting process by creating uniform national voting standards.

I know how to cure that problem very easily..

Its called carbon copy reciepts.

One vote, three paper copies, citizen retains his original vote, both carbon duplicates goes to local and federal election boards.

Yes like the carbon reciepts you can buy at walmart for 2$ for every 250 reciepts.

You can have the booklets of vote reciepts printed up in the easiest way possible even with corresponding black and white photos embedded.

You can also have them printed in french, spanish, chinese, korean, latin, czech... whatever.

1 vote.. 3 reciepts

I like EJ Dionne. He lays it right out here...

Fiscal Policy: Why 'Stupid' Fits

By E. J. Dionne Jr.

Friday, September 23, 2005

Hurricane Rita heads inexorably westward, threatening to add to the human and financial costs of Hurricane Katrina. And when it comes to taxes and spending, Washington acts as if nothing is happening.

True, a group of very conservative Republicans issued a list of program cuts on Wednesday under the imposing name "Operation Offset." The cuts that the Republican Study Committee proposed have won their sponsors praise for making "tough choices." Of course the sponsors won't actually have to live with these cuts, because Republican leaders dismissed most of the reductions, especially in congressional pet projects and the Medicare prescription drug benefit.

Here's a fact getting far too little attention: The cost this year alone of the Bush tax cuts enacted in 2001 and 2003 comes to $225 billion. In other words, the revenue lost because of tax cuts going through this year without any congressional action would more than pay the costs of Katrina recovery.

Why describe our government's fiscal policies as "stupid," rather than, say, "ill-advised" or "misguided"? The softer words of conventional opinion writing imply disagreement but suggest an honest coherence in the other side's view. Hey, we all disagree on stuff, right?

But our current budget policies are built not on honest coherence but on incoherence or, even worse, a dishonest coherence. The president and members of Congress always insist that they are fiscal conservatives who believe in balanced budgets. Yet their actions bear no relationship to their words, and labels such as "conservative" have no connection to their policies. Our federal purse strings are in the hands of fiscal radicals.

~snip~
Not very politic, I'll grant you, but honest. Vice President Cheney came as close as anyone to this form of honesty when he spoke in support of the tax cuts on dividends shortly after the 2002 elections. His words, alas, came at a closed meeting. According to Ron Suskind's book "The Price of Loyalty," Cheney referred to the former president in insisting to his administration colleagues that "Reagan proved deficits don't matter" and that Republicans owed themselves more tax cuts. "We won the midterms," Cheney said. "This is our due."

All hail the former Halliburton CEO for being candid enough to put the accent on power and privilege, not on policy and those oh-so-boring fiscal concerns. I guess balanced budgets aren't for "big-picture guys."

Which brings us back to that word "stupid." My dictionary tells me it means not only "lacking in ordinary intelligence" but also "dazed" and "stupefied." The crowd running our government is dazed and stupefied by a theory that sees throwing ever-larger sums to the wealthy in the form of tax cuts as so good, right and important that all the ordinary rules of finance and economics can be thrown out the window. If it was already stupid to pursue more tax cuts once the country decided to wage a large war on terrorism, it is supremely stupid to stay on the same course now that Katrina has added to our fiscal burdens and Rita, God help us, threatens to add more.

Or maybe it's the rest of us who should be called stupid if we keep taking these guys at their word. Are we all so dazed that we'll keep believing them even after a hurricane has blown away their alibis?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/22/AR2005092202255.html

Oh and did i mention they are virtually tamper proof...?

My comments are simple:

1) Change the major heading called "Taxes" into "Economy"

2) ADD the goal of eliminating global and domestic poverty by year 2020

Photos from SF rally yesterday:

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/object/article?f=/c/a/2005/09/25/MNGD7ETMO81.DTL&o=0

I agree with Mass about the environment. Besides just being important in its' own right, it links up with energy independence, public health, and security issues.

I am getting used to the French keyboard and had a nice tour with Andree today AND we met Americans from Portland and Louisiana

Glad the antiwar rally got lots of press outside the US

As I am exposed to more history I see historical precendents where leaders mixed state power with theology and the results were not pretty

I also saw contemporary elementary schools where children not so very long ago were deported and killed by Nazis

I got locked in a basement when emptying garbage and for all I know it is a place where people hid earlier in history

We can not be too careful as history seems to be repeating itself in an ominous way

Bedtime here soon so catch you later

xo

DiAnne:

Miss you, girl. Think of us as the lights dance on the Seine...

A story from someone who attended the Peace March in DC...

I live in Virginia, and conventional wisdom is that if you want to go to D.C., you go on Friday, because everyone else is leaving. With most of the populace heading west or south, eastbound traffic in is a picnic. So when we got 10 miles outside of D.C. on I-66 East and traffic STOPPED we knew Georgie and the boys were in for some serious company. Get out the rollaway, Pickles – we’re staying the night.

We came from everywhere. The Metro lines were jammed tight, and there wasn’t a hotel room to be seen for miles. We owned the Red Roof Inn – 30 blocks away from the Washington Monument – and we smiled at each other in the hallways, and in the elevators, and at breakfast. Those of us who had been through Vietnam knew what we were looking at here –we were building another movement to stop another war, and we were seeing the same things we saw then.
~snip~

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=4880131

And lots of pics from the march here...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/bootbearwdc

TIME Sunday: How many Mike Browns did Bush appoint?

A TIME inquiry finds that at top positions in some vital government agencies, the Bush Administration is putting connections before experience.

FROM SUNDAY'S TIME -- EXCERPTS

"Historically, the U.S. public has never paid much attention to the people the President chooses to sit behind those thousands of desks. A benign cronyism is more or less presumed, with old friends and big donors getting comfortable positions and impressive titles, and with few real consequences for the nation. But then came Michael Brown. When President Bush's former point man on disasters was discovered to have more expertise about the rules of Arabian horse competition than about the management of a catastrophe, it was a reminder that the competence of government officials who are not household names can have a life or death impact.

THE FDA: His official FDA biography notes that Gottlieb, 33, who got his medical degree at Mount Sinai School of Medicine, did a previous stint providing policy advice at the agency, as well as at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and was a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank. What the bio omits is that his most recent job was as editor of a popular Wall Street newsletter, the Forbes/Gottlieb Medical Technology Investor, in which he offered such tips as "Three Biotech Stocks to Buy Now." In declaring Gottlieb a "noted authority" who had written more than 300 policy and medical articles, the biography neglects the fact that many of those articles criticized the FDA for being too slow to approve new drugs and too quick to issue warning letters when it suspects ones already on the market might be unsafe.

FEDERAL PROCUREMENT: David Safavian didn't have much hands-on experience in government contracting when the Bush Administration tapped him in 2003 to be its chief procurement officer. A law-school internship helping the Pentagon buy helicopters was about the extent of it. Yet as administrator of the Office of Federal Procurement Policy, Safavian, 38, was placed in charge of the $300 billion the government spends each year on everything from paper clips to nuclear submarines, as well as the $62 billion already earmarked for Hurricane Katrina recovery efforts. It was his job to ensure that the government got the most for its money and that competition for federal contracts—among companies as well as between government workers and private contractors—was fair. It was his job until he resigned on Sept. 16 and was subsequently arrested and charged with lying and obstructing a criminal investigation into Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff's dealings with the Federal Government.

A dozen procurement experts interviewed by Time said he was the most unqualified person to hold the job since its creation in 1974. Nevertheless, Safavian's April 2004 confirmation hearing before the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee (attended by only five of the panel's 17 members) lasted just 67 minutes, and not a single question was asked about his qualifications.

IMMIGRATION: The Administration nominated Myers, 36, currently a special assistant handling personnel issues for Bush. She has experience in law-enforcement management, including jobs in the White House and the Commerce, Justice and Treasury departments, but she barely meets the five-year minimum required by law. Her most significant responsibility has been as Assistant Secretary for Export Enforcement at the Commerce Department, where, she told Senators, she supervised 170 employees and a $25 million budget.

Myers may appear short on qualifications, but she has plenty of connections. She worked briefly for Chertoff as his chief of staff at the Justice Department's criminal division, and two days after her hearing, she married Chertoff's current chief of staff, John Wood. Her uncle is Air Force General Richard Myers, the outgoing Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

CIA: 'An Agency Version of the "Jerry Springer Show"'

Newsweek -Oct. 3, 2005 issue

Personal and political feuding at CIA headquarters is turning into a soap opera. Morale has declined for months as CIA chief Porter Goss has purged senior managers and critics have assailed the agency for fumbling intelligence on Al Qaeda and unconventional weapons in Iraq. And last week frustrations at Langley, Va., boiled over as career spies lobbed broadsides against Goss's stewardship.

Only sketchy accounts are available of what may have been the most telling critique of Goss's leadership, presented to a closed-door meeting of the Senate Intelligence Committee by veteran operative Rob Richer. Richer served nine months as deputy chief of the CIA's spy branch before resigning earlier this month. He told senators he was unhappy about how Goss ran the agency, including the director's absentee style of management, say three sources familiar with his testimony who declined to be identified because it's classified. Richer "struggled mightily to be respectful but did not pull punches," says one of the sources. (A supporter says Richer isn't speaking to the media.)

The day after Richer sat before the committee, Goss appeared at a previously scheduled "Town Hall Meeting" open to all CIA employees and broadcast by closed-circuit video to agency outposts. In a speech, the CIA chief declared the agency had made "real progress" in recruiting new agents and chasing terrorists. The speech was distributed to the media, but in a private Q&A afterward, Goss faced awkward questions from the ranks. Asked why veteran officers like Richer were walking out, Goss said, "I don't do personnel," and blamed the media for inaccurate reporting, say three sources with firsthand knowledge of the proceedings who requested anonymity since the broadcast was private. The CIA's operations chief, known as Jose because he works under cover, then stated that Richer "had good reasons for leaving." (A CIA official familiar with Goss's view, who doesn't discuss it for attribution, says Goss believes that CIA division chiefs should have the right to choose their own personnel—and that Jose said CIA operations would emerge "even stronger" from Goss's reforms.) Another member of the audience, say the sources with first-hand knowledge, asked Goss about why the director brought a former congressional staffer with him to the CIA who, as a junior CIA officer, once got into trouble for shoplifting food. Goss responded that people make mistakes.

more... http://msnbc.msn.com/id/9468670/site/newsweek

Blair falls into line with Bush view on global warming

By Geoffrey Lean and Christopher Silvester
Published: 25 September 2005

Sharing a platform with the US Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, in New York this month, Mr Blair confessed: "Probably I'm changing my thinking about this", adding that he hoped the world's nations would "not negotiate international treaties".

This contradicts his assertion in a speech a year ago - which drew a private rebuke from the Bush administration - that "a problem that is global in cause and scope can only be fully addressed through international agreement".

It also denies what his ministers claimed to be his main achievement on global warming at Gleneagles. He had succeeded in getting all the leaders except Mr Bush to sign up to negotiating a successor to the Kyoto treaty, and in arranging a meeting between the G8 and leading developing countries to discuss it.

But instead of endorsing agreed limits on the pollution that causes climate change, Mr Blair told this month's meeting at the Clinton Global Initiative that he was putting his faith in "developing science and technology" - precisely Mr Bush's position.

He justified his change of heart by saying that countries would not negotiate environmental treaties that cut their growth or consumption - another of the President's main contentions. But in another speech last April he said it was "quite false" to suppose that environmental protection would inhibit growth.

more... http://news.independent.co.uk/world/environment/article314991.ece

Hi everyone,

A while back I posted about my husband's buddy Jason Altmire, who is running for Congress in the Pittsburgh area. His campaign just got a nice plug from Josh Marshall's Talking Points Memo. When you click on the link, scroll down and click on the picture of Tom Delay on the left side.

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/

By the way - the march was so powerful - sorry I missed most of you. Missed my flight and then when I got the later one, got stuck on the metro and caught the tail end of the march - which was still amazing!!!

For those who have concerns about the side issues that came along with the anti-war protest march yesterday, there's a very thoughtful essay and some interesting responses on this thread at daily kos. The author gives some specific action items well worth consideration and action by us all...

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2005/9/25/155054/153

These two quotes from Eisenhower seem appropriate...

"Every gun that is made, every warship launched,
every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense,
a theft from those who hunger and are not fed,
those who are cold and are not clothed.
This world in arms is not spending money alone.
It is spending the sweat of its laborers,
the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children...
This is not a way of life at all, in any true sense.
Under the cloud of threatening war,
it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron."

"Here in America we are descended in blood and in spirit from revolutionists and rebels - men and women who dare to dissent from accepted doctrine. As their heirs, may we never confuse honest dissent with disloyal subversion."

--Dwight D. Eisenhower--

This is what democracy looks like...

from DU

http://www.mbare.org/Images/mbare.org924March.MPG

great video clip Carol. Thanks for pointing it out.

Here in America we are descended in blood and in spirit from revolutionists and rebels - men and women who dare to dissent from accepted doctrine.

What he really meant is we came from fine British criminal stock.

Good enough to defy THAT empire. Good enough to defy any

Only 400 people showed up at the national mall today for a counter-protest in support of the Iraq war. Yesterday, 100,000-300,000 people filled the streets of D.C. to protest the Iraq war.

http://thinkprogress.org/

snicker snicker giggle giggle

HARHARHARHARHAR HEHEHE

more great photos from mbare (linked from DU)

http://www.mbare.org/gallery/view_album.php?set_albumName=September24thIraqWarProtestandMarch&page=1

Bush is trying to repeal Posse Comitatus (the ban on using US troops in domestic law enforcement)

The next step towards Dictatorship.

Blackwater Down
by JEREMY SCAHILL

The men from Blackwater USA arrived in New Orleans right after Katrina hit. The company known for its private security work guarding senior US diplomats in Iraq beat the federal government and most aid organizations to the scene in another devastated Gulf. About 150 heavily armed Blackwater troops dressed in full battle gear spread out into the chaos of New Orleans.....

......Some patrolled the streets in SUVs with tinted windows and the Blackwater logo splashed on the back; others sped around the French Quarter in an unmarked car with no license plates.

.......In an hourlong conversation I had with four Blackwater men, they characterized their work in New Orleans as "securing neighborhoods" and "confronting criminals." They all carried automatic assault weapons and had guns strapped to their legs. Their flak jackets were covered with pouches for extra ammunition.

When asked what authority they were operating under, one guy said, "We're on contract with the Department of Homeland Security." ....

.....A possibly deadly incident involving Quinn's hired guns underscores the dangers of private forces policing American streets. On his second night in New Orleans, Quinn's security chief....was with a heavily armed security detail... Montgomery told me they came under fire from "black gangbangers" on an overpass near the poor Ninth Ward neighborhood...

Montgomery says he and his men were armed with AR-15s and Glocks and that they unleashed a barrage of bullets in the general direction of the alleged shooters on the overpass. "After that, all I heard was moaning and screaming, and the shooting stopped. That was it. Enough said."

.........With President Bush using the Katrina disaster to try to repeal Posse Comitatus (the ban on using US troops in domestic law enforcement) and Blackwater and other security firms clearly initiating a push to install their paramilitaries on US soil, the war is coming home in yet another ominous way. As one Blackwater mercenary said, "This is a trend. You're going to see a lot more guys like us in these situations."

http://www.thenation.com/docprint.mhtml?i=20051010&s=scahill

We have a pledge for America.

It is called The Constitution of the United States.

Why not post it and the Bill of Rights across America so ALL the people can read it.

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

Get the idea?

N.O. looking at months as a childless city

05:15 PM CDT on Sunday, September 25, 2005

Associated Press

Even after the latest hurricane crisis eases, and downtown businesses along with French Quarter topless bars reopen, life in New Orleans will be far from normal. Among the somber distinctions: For months to come this will be an almost childless city.

Dozens of schools were irreparably damaged by Hurricane Katrina, and only a handful are expected to open before January. Few day-care centers will be available for preschoolers, and health experts warn that children are at extra risk of contamination if they come back before the city is thoroughly cleaned of the foul floodwater's residue.

"It's a big concern of ours," said the Rev. William Maestri, superintendent of the city's Roman Catholic schools. "We want our families back."

Until they do return, a whole sector of the economy will be in limbo -- not only child care workers and teachers, but also pediatricians, owners of child-oriented stores and others. Numerous New Orleans teachers, faced with payroll problems and no work in their home city, are getting hired elsewhere.

By the tens of thousands, New Orleans' children are scattered around the United States, enrolling in schools, making new friends or -- in some cases -- getting into fights with the local students.

Many of their parents want to return home when conditions allow, but many others say they may settle in their new locations, almost certainly producing a significant drop in New Orleans' population of children.

Arthur Johnson, a lifetime New Orleans resident, said one of his adult daughters evacuated and placed her four children in Texas public schools, where they were faring better than in their hometown school.

"We have bad schools here," he said. "We've been knowing that for years."

But Michelle Bailey, a hospital worker who evacuated with her three children to Houston, said she wanted to bring her family back to New Orleans.

"My kids can't go to school now," she said. "Last week they went and a big fight broke out."

New Orleans officials hope to open a few schools Nov. 1 on the West Bank, a section of the city relatively unscathed by Katrina. But the school board president, Torin Sanders, said a broader reopening in the main part of the city probably wouldn't occur until January -- and even that would involve only a limited number of the 126 public schools.

The plan, he indicated, would be to open certain schools that suffered little damage, accommodating returning students even if they lived in other neighborhoods.

Sanders said the widely criticized school system, which served 60,000 students, could benefit in the long term.

"We are poised to take advantage of this, to make our schools the best in the country," he said, "Most of our buildings were built before World War II. This is an opportunity to make them environmentally sound, with new technology and better security, with more specialized programs in the high schools."

Sandra Adams, executive director of Louisiana Maternal Child and Health Coalition, said it was possible that the public schools wouldn't be fully operational until the fall of 2006.

"It's going to be a city without children for some months," she said. "Some people say the only way to fix the New Orleans school system is to start from scratch, and I think we're at scratch today."

The Catholic school system, under Maestri's direction, operates 22 schools in the city serving 20,000 children.

"We want to assess those schools, find out what the needs are and see how quickly we can open them," Maestri said. "We believe the schools are the magnets of hope, the institutions that draw families back."

Along with uncertainty about education, many parents are likely to wonder if their children face health risks upon returning to a city where the water supply was tainted and almost every neighborhood -- including school yards and playgrounds -- coated with bacteria-fouled floodwater.

"Kids are more susceptible to toxins, bacterial contamination," said Dr. Keith Perrin, president of the Louisiana chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics. "They absorb things differently than adults. They're more prone to putting things into their mouths."

Any child returning in the near future should receive a tetanus shot, Perrin said, although he noted that local vaccine supplies had been depleted by heat damage when cooling units failed during the flood.

Local pediatricians are likely to lose many of their young patients, at least for the next few months, but Perrin predicted that most would do fine serving children from suburbs where schools are expected to reopen soon.

Police Detective K.M. Johnson said he hoped and expected that his grown children would return with his four grandchildren as soon as schools reopen. "Nobody's running away," he said. "It's a little setback, that's all."

For some tourists, the idea of a child-free New Orleans might seem almost appropriate, given that visitors are lured by gambling, business conventions and the French Quarter's late-night drinking and naughtiness. Locals don't see their city that way.

"A lot of people think of Bourbon Street, Mardi Gras -- things that are very adult-oriented," said Sanders, the school board president. "But New Orleans is a very family friendly place. People from here know that."

(Copyright 2005 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

Posted by: Christy at September 25, 2005 08:03 PM

It must have killed Faux news to post the story of so few pro-war supporters.

Returning home from an experience never to be forgotten in Washington D.C., I wondered what had the rally meant to me? Veritas' post on the previous thread perfectly captured the moment, but I needed to know what had I done to make America a better place? I read this poem on the jet back to Chicago and am posting it as I feel that it demonstrates what I hope to accomplish and what the experience meant to me. I never have suffered the indignities that Langston Hughes endured, but this poem describes the yearning for a better country that he so eloquently describes:

Let America be America again.
Let it be the dream it used to be.
Let it be the pioneer on the plain
Seeking a home where he himself is free.

(America never was America to me.)

Let America be the dream the dreamers dreamed--
Let it be that great strong land of love
Where never kings connive nor tyrants scheme
That any man be crushed by one above.

(It never was America to me.)

O, let my land be a land where Liberty
Is crowned with no false patriotic wreath,
But opportunity is real, and life is free,
Equality is in the air we breathe.

(There's never been equality for me,
Nor freedom in this "homeland of the free.")

Say, who are you that mumbles in the dark?
And who are you that draws your veil across the stars?

I am the poor white, fooled and pushed apart,
I am the Negro bearing slavery's scars.
I am the red man driven from the land,
I am the immigrant clutching the hope I seek--
And finding only the same old stupid plan
Of dog eat dog, of mighty crush the weak.

I am the young man, full of strength and hope,
Tangled in that ancient endless chain
Of profit, power, gain, of grab the land!
Of grab the gold! Of grab the ways of satisfying need!
Of work the men! Of take the pay!
Of owning everything for one's own greed!

I am the farmer, bondsman to the soil.
I am the worker sold to the machine.
I am the Negro, servant to you all.
I am the people, humble, hungry, mean--
Hungry yet today despite the dream.
Beaten yet today--O, Pioneers!
I am the man who never got ahead,
The poorest worker bartered through the years.

Yet I'm the one who dreamt our basic dream
In the Old World while still a serf of kings,
Who dreamt a dream so strong, so brave, so true,
That even yet its mighty daring sings
In every brick and stone, in every furrow turned
That's made America the land it has become.
O, I'm the man who sailed those early seas
In search of what I meant to be my home--
For I'm the one who left dark Ireland's shore,
And Poland's plain, and England's grassy lea,
And torn from Black Africa's strand I came
To build a "homeland of the free."

The free?

Who said the free? Not me?
Surely not me? The millions on relief today?
The millions shot down when we strike?
The millions who have nothing for our pay?
For all the dreams we've dreamed
And all the songs we've sung
And all the hopes we've held
And all the flags we've hung,
The millions who have nothing for our pay--
Except the dream that's almost dead today.

O, let America be America again--
The land that never has been yet--
And yet must be--the land where every man is free.
The land that's mine--the poor man's, Indian's, Negro's, ME--
Who made America,
Whose sweat and blood, whose faith and pain,
Whose hand at the foundry, whose plow in the rain,
Must bring back our mighty dream again.

Sure, call me any ugly name you choose--
The steel of freedom does not stain.
From those who live like leeches on the people's lives,
We must take back our land again,
America!

O, yes,
I say it plain,
America never was America to me,
And yet I swear this oath--
America will be!

Out of the rack and ruin of our gangster death,
The rape and rot of graft, and stealth, and lies,
We, the people, must redeem
The land, the mines, the plants, the rivers.
The mountains and the endless plain--
All, all the stretch of these great green states--
And make America again!

Langston Hughes
July 1936

Thank you, oncall, for posting that beautiful poem.

I have read it before, but never have the words held so much meaning as they do tonight.

"Out of the rack and ruin of our gangster death,
The rape and rot of graft, and stealth, and lies,
We, the people, must redeem
The land, the mines, the plants, the rivers.
The mountains and the endless plain--
All, all the stretch of these great green states--
And make America again!"

Halliburton Stock Doubles - So Do US Troop Deaths

WASHINGTON -- Since the beginning of the Iraq war, Halliburton, the Texas energy giant once headed by Vice President Dick Cheney, has seen its stock price more than triple in value. When the U.S invaded Iraq in March of 2003, Halliburton's stock was selling for $20 per share. The stock price at the close of market activity on Monday was $66.

In the last 12 months, the total number of U.S. service members killed in Iraq almost doubled as Halliburton's stock doubled. Halliburton's stock rose from $33 per share in September 2004 to $66 yesterday while U.S. deaths in Iraq increased from 1,061 to almost 1900.

Three graphs at this link starkly depict the dramatically similar rise of Halliburton's stock price, revenue and U.S. soldiers killed during the past thirty months of war in Iraq.

Halliburton's CEO also enjoyed an incredible personal gain from Iraq and the commensurate rise in gasoline prices. A HalliburtonWatch analysis reveals that CEO David Lesar's stock holdings in Halliburton increased by a stunning $78 million since the Iraq invasion.

As U.S. citizens march on Washington this weekend to protest the 30-month anniversary of the war, a recent poll shows 52 percent of Americans want an "immediate" withdrawal of all U.S. troops from Iraq.

The big money Halliburton has made from the war, along with the widespread belief that the Bush administration lied about Saddam Hussein's purported weapons of mass destruction, has helped fuel public sentiment supporting the immediate withdrawal of troops from Iraq. Polls show a majority of Americans do not think the war is worth the cost in lives and taxpayers' money.

Halliburton has been the focus of heated criticism from members of Congress and even the Bush administration over its handling of war contracts. Pentagon auditors have issued at least nine reports slamming the company's inept and possibly fraudulent accounting system for work in Iraq.

In September 2004, the U.S. military called for the immediate termination of Halliburton's most lucrative contract with the Army because of poor performance. Additionally, in January, the U.S. embassy in Iraq threatened to terminate Halliburton's contracts because of poor performance. However, both recommendations were ignored by President George W. Bush.

http://www.halliburtonwatch.org/news/stock_troop2.html

6. HEALTH CARE: Ensure that every American has health insurance.

Insurance companies are the problem.

Ensure every American has access to quality healthcare.

http://niteswimming.blogspot.com/

O-BLOODY, O BLOOD-AH!

by Mortal Jive

for image go here:

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a228/mortaljive/bushrumsfeld.jpg

Georgie had a future in the United States
Rummy was leftover from his dad
Georgie says to Rummy: let's invade that place
And Rummy said this as he took him by the hand
O-bloody, o-blood-ah, death goes on, ja!
Ga-ga, how this death goes on
O-bloody, o-blood-ah, death goes on, ja!
Ga-ga, how this death goes on

Georgie took a tour of The Big Easy
Poses for a photo-op, touching
Stops to look at Karl waiting at the door
And waits to feel the pull of all those puppet strings

O-bloody, o-blood-ah, death goes on, ja!
Ga-ga, how this death goes on
O-bloody, o-blood-ah, death goes on, ja!
Ga-ga, how this death goes on

In under two terms they have broken
Everything
Just a couple more years with them in charge
There'll be nothing left but bones

Happy never after in the dying light
Rummy stares at blood that stains the sand
Georgie stays at home and starts to clear his brush
And in the evening waits for shit to hit the fan

Yes,
O-bloody, o-blood-ah, death goes on, ja!
Ga-ga, how this death goes on
O-bloody, o-blood-ah, death goes on, ja!
Ga-ga, how this death goes on

In under two terms they have broken
Everything
Just a couple more years with them in charge
There'll be nothing left but bones

Happy never after in the dying light
Rummy stares at blood that stains the sand
Georgie stays at home and starts to clear his brush
And in the evening waits for shit to hit the fan

Yes,
O-bloody, o-blood-ah, death goes on, ja!
Ga-ga, how this death goes on
O-bloody, o-blood-ah, death goes on, ja!
Ga-ga, how this death goes on
O-bloody, o-blood-ah

+++

Special thanks to The Beatles for my abuse of Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da in this
un-authorized parody of that most delightful song.

***** ~ ~ *****

DO THE WORK

by Mortal Jive

"President Bush acts to suspend Davis-Bacon Act of 1931, thereby slashing
wages to poverty levels."

Hey there mister, got a job for you
Get yourself a hammer and some workin' shoes
Come down to the office, take a look around
You're gonna help to build us a brand new town

Hey there mister, there is work to be done
You'll sleep like a baby, you will rise with the sun
Carry that lumber, dig some holes
Don't get no mud on the boss's Rolls

(chorus)
Turn the clock back, we're on the run
It's 1930 and there's work to be done
Do the work
Do the work
Let's build America
Let's do the work
Do the work
If your heart is breaking, shake it off
We're the living, let's do the work

Hey, I know that guy, back from Iraq
Lost his friend in a sniper attack
Ready to help in his community
He has fought to keep us free

In his eyes I see the desert sky
Bombs going off just like the 4th of July
Got himself a job here for the minimum wage
He ain't yet 26 but he's showin' his age

(chorus)
Turn the clock back, we're on the run
It's 1930 and there's work to be done
Do the work
Do the work
Let's build America
Let's do the work
Do the work
If your heart is breaking, shake it off
We're the living, let's do the work

One day all the business' will open their doors
Filled with trinkets that sparkle in the happy stores
Ladies from Lafayette will wander by
Steppin' around that homeless guy

Make a movie of the moment, zoom on in
Take a look at the eyes of a veteran
There are many who washed up on the shore
Every day there are more and more

(chorus)
Turn the clock back, we're on the run
It's 1930 and there's work to be done
Do the work
Do the work
Let's build America
Let's do the work
Do the work
If your heart is breaking, shake it off
We're the living, let's do the work

+++

http://mortaljive.blogspot.com/

O-BLOODY, O BLOOD-AH!

by Mortal Jive

for image go here:

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a228/mortaljive/bushrumsfeld.jpg

Georgie had a future in the United States
Rummy was leftover from his dad
Georgie says to Rummy: let's invade that place
And Rummy said this as he took him by the hand
O-bloody, o-blood-ah, death goes on, ja!
Ga-ga, how this death goes on
O-bloody, o-blood-ah, death goes on, ja!
Ga-ga, how this death goes on

Georgie took a tour of The Big Easy
Poses for a photo-op, touching
Stops to look at Karl waiting at the door
And waits to feel the pull of all those puppet strings

O-bloody, o-blood-ah, death goes on, ja!
Ga-ga, how this death goes on
O-bloody, o-blood-ah, death goes on, ja!
Ga-ga, how this death goes on

In under two terms they have broken
Everything
Just a couple more years with them in charge
There'll be nothing left but bones

Happy never after in the dying light
Rummy stares at blood that stains the sand
Georgie stays at home and starts to clear his brush
And in the evening waits for shit to hit the fan

Yes,
O-bloody, o-blood-ah, death goes on, ja!
Ga-ga, how this death goes on
O-bloody, o-blood-ah, death goes on, ja!
Ga-ga, how this death goes on

In under two terms they have broken
Everything
Just a couple more years with them in charge
There'll be nothing left but bones

Happy never after in the dying light
Rummy stares at blood that stains the sand
Georgie stays at home and starts to clear his brush
And in the evening waits for shit to hit the fan

Yes,
O-bloody, o-blood-ah, death goes on, ja!
Ga-ga, how this death goes on
O-bloody, o-blood-ah, death goes on, ja!
Ga-ga, how this death goes on
O-bloody, o-blood-ah

+++

Special thanks to The Beatles for my abuse of Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da in this
un-authorized parody of that most delightful song.

***** ~ ~ *****

DO THE WORK

by Mortal Jive

"President Bush acts to suspend Davis-Bacon Act of 1931, thereby slashing
wages to poverty levels."

Hey there mister, got a job for you
Get yourself a hammer and some workin' shoes
Come down to the office, take a look around
You're gonna help to build us a brand new town

Hey there mister, there is work to be done
You'll sleep like a baby, you will rise with the sun
Carry that lumber, dig some holes
Don't get no mud on the boss's Rolls

(chorus)
Turn the clock back, we're on the run
It's 1930 and there's work to be done
Do the work
Do the work
Let's build America
Let's do the work
Do the work
If your heart is breaking, shake it off
We're the living, let's do the work

Hey, I know that guy, back from Iraq
Lost his friend in a sniper attack
Ready to help in his community
He has fought to keep us free

In his eyes I see the desert sky
Bombs going off just like the 4th of July
Got himself a job here for the minimum wage
He ain't yet 26 but he's showin' his age

(chorus)
Turn the clock back, we're on the run
It's 1930 and there's work to be done
Do the work
Do the work
Let's build America
Let's do the work
Do the work
If your heart is breaking, shake it off
We're the living, let's do the work

One day all the business' will open their doors
Filled with trinkets that sparkle in the happy stores
Ladies from Lafayette will wander by
Steppin' around that homeless guy

Make a movie of the moment, zoom on in
Take a look at the eyes of a veteran
There are many who washed up on the shore
Every day there are more and more

(chorus)
Turn the clock back, we're on the run
It's 1930 and there's work to be done
Do the work
Do the work
Let's build America
Let's do the work
Do the work
If your heart is breaking, shake it off
We're the living, let's do the work

+++

http://mortaljive.blogspot.com/

Sorry, double post. Don't know why that happened.

REVISED PLEDGE: (taking into account all the above concerns:

NOW THAT WE’VE GOT YOUR ATTENTION…

September 24’s march for peace brought hundreds of thousands of Americans to the White House lawn. Citizens from across the nation came together to demand an end to the occupation of Iraq and the return home of the troops as soon as possible.

The march is over. Now we turn to the next steps we need to take to bring back the promise of America, at home and abroad.

To that end, the Democracy Cell Project offers “The Progressive Pledge for America,” a core set of proposals to get our country back on track. We urge Americans everywhere to take the pledge, and persuade their Senators and Representatives to sign the pledge and carry it out.

THE PROGRESSIVE PLEDGE FOR AMERICA

A Call to Action

1. TAXES: Rescind the harmful tax cuts given to the wealthiest Americans and eliminate the vast amount of pork-barrel spending, reallocating those funds to the following areas:
A. Reconstructing the Gulf Coast and improving the national infrastructure;
B. Evaluating and improving national emergency preparedness, including the separation of FEMA from the Dept. of Homeland Security;
C. Providing incentives to speed the development of alternative energy sources and conservation to reduce our dependence on the Middle East.

2. IRAQ: Create a commission of qualified and experienced individuals to design a cohesive, intelligent withdrawal strategy, with measurable benchmarks, to bring the troops home as soon as possible.

3. HOMELAND SECURITY: Adopt all of the 9-11 Commission’s recommendations, and formulate a real plan for Homeland Security, including port, rail, and chemical and nuclear facility improvements.

4. MAKE EVERY VOTE COUNT: Guarantee the complete security and verifiability of the voting process by creating uniform national voting standards.

5. JOBS: Provide financial incentives for American companies to create and maintain family-supporting jobs inside the U.S.

6. HEALTH CARE: Ensure that every American has health care.

*************************************

Two caveats: first, this list is not intended to be a complete platform; second, whatever policies we adopt must move us toward eliminating the scourge of poverty, and toward an environmentally sustainable economy.

There is much more work to be done, but the important thing is that we begin. So take the pledge, and begin.

In the coming days, we will provide updates on how you can become involved. For more information, please contact the Democracy Cell Project at progressivepledge@democracycellproject.net, or visit the DCP website at http://www.democracycellproject.net.

Here's how msnbc.com covered the weekend events...

Ya gotta do some digging, (something RoveCo. knows that very few people in this country do), cuz it's not even mentioned on the main news page. Buried on the US News Page are these two headlines, side by side... each a link to it's own article.

Hundreds rally to back war | Antiwar protests

But here's how the articles look...

Rally to support Iraq war draws hundreds
Organizers had hoped for far larger response to Saturday’s D.C. protest

WASHINGTON - Support for U.S. troops fighting abroad mixed with anger toward antiwar demonstrators at home as hundreds of people, far fewer than organizers had expected, rallied Sunday on the National Mall just a day after a massive protest against the war in Iraq.

“No matter what your ideals are, our sons and daughters are fighting for our freedom,” said Marilyn Faatz, who drove from New Jersey to attend the rally. “We are making a mockery out of this. And we need to stand united, but we are not.”

About 400 people gathered near a stage on an eastern segment of the mall, a large photo of an American flag serving as a backdrop. Amid banners and signs proclaiming support for U.S. troops, several speakers hailed the effort to bring democracy to Iraq and Afghanistan and denounced those who protest it.

full article... http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9478262/

Anti-war demonstrators stage day of protest
Tens of thousands rally in marathon day of song, remembrance

WASHINGTON - Crowds opposed to the war in Iraq surged past the White House on Saturday, shouting “Peace now” in the largest anti-war protest in the nation’s capital since the U.S. invasion.

The rally stretched through the day and into the night, a marathon of music, speechmaking and dissent on the National Mall. Police Chief Charles H. Ramsey, noting that organizers had hoped to draw 100,000 people, said, “I think they probably hit that.”

Speakers from the stage attacked President Bush’s policies head on, but he was not at the White House to hear it. He spent the day in Colorado and Texas, monitoring hurricane recovery.

full article...
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9463993/

BURIED!!!!

The liberal media... can you dig it?

monkey,

We do not dig it, but we expect it...