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The Criminals Who Took Over Congress
First he was under investigation and indicted:
(Jack Abramoff listens to his attorney)
And HE was under investigation and indicted:
(Tom Delay finds getting arrested the next best thing to Disneyland.)
But now another Tom Delay associate gets indicted by the Justice Department.
(Michael Scanlon Refuses to Testify at Senate Hearings.)
Michael Scanlon was Mr. Abramoff's former lobbying partner and a former top House aide to Representative Tom DeLay. Scanlon is well known for being an extraordinary wheeler and dealer and a super-mega-lobbyist.
Therefore, one is left wondering why Tom Delay is smiling so broadly when this investigation and these charges by the Department of Justice threaten to topple many in his own party in Congress, some in the White House, and many of his associates in the business world who paid to participate in the looting of America?
PHILIP SHENON of the New York times wrote:
"The charges against Mr. Scanlon identified no lawmakers by name, but a summary of the case released by the Justice Department accused him of being part of a broad conspiracy to provide "things of value, including money, meals, trips and entertainment to federal public officials in return for agreements to perform official acts" - an attempt at bribery, in other words, or something close to it."
Or as Thomas Mann a specialist at the Brookings Institute states it:
"I think this has the potential to be the biggest scandal in Congress in over a century. I've been around Washington for 35 years, watching Congress, and I've never seen anything approaching Abramoff for cynicism and chutzpah in proposing quid pro quo to members of Congress."
The list of people to be grasped by the iron jaws of justice represents the mighty and the powerful in politics, lobbys, and business. They are the powerbrokers that pay to have favorable laws passed to help their corporations and they were willing to pay big bucks to make sure it happened. These indictments pave the way to bringing down even more of the participants in the illegal "pay to play scheme!"
While Delay, Abromoff, and others claim it's an unfair attack by over zealous prosecutors, that excuse appears doubtful when you look at the list of names indicted so far. They include officials in the Interior Department as well as David H. Safavian, (the White House Budget official who resigned just days before his arrest in September). There's also Mr Ney, a five-term lawmaker whose current position as the chairman of the House Administration Committee hangs by a thread since he has not been indicted yet but is still being investigated. These are not just small potatoes in the industry. No...they are the giants!
And if that's not enough, the NYT reports that officials in England have some chatting they'd like to do with Tom Delay as well. It states:
"The Justice Department signaled last month that Mr. DeLay had come under scrutiny in the investigation, over a trip that Mr. Abramoff arranged for Mr. DeLay and his wife to Britain in 2000 that included rounds of golf at the fabled course at St. Andrews in Scotland.
The department revealed its interest in Mr. DeLay, who is under indictment in Texas in an unrelated investigation involving violations of state election laws, in an extraordinary request to the British government that police there interview former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher about the circumstances of a meeting in London with Mr. DeLay during the trip five years ago.
London newspapers quoted a document prepared by the British Home Office that outlined the Justice Department's investigation and said that "it is alleged that Abramoff arranged for his clients to pay for the trips to the U.K. on the basis that Congressman DeLay would support favorable legislation."
Unbelievable, is it not?
This is the stuff of a fictional novel.
Could this be why Jimmy Carter wrote this: Our Endangered Values: America's Moral Crisis?
So, what is an upstanding citizen suppose to do when facing these fictional plots in reality?
How about this: If you want to end this moral crisis then repeat the following phrase to others and repeat it often!
BRIBERY is wrong and we will not accept it. Get it out of our government!
Bribery is wrong and we will not accept it. Get it out of our government!
Bribery is wrong....
Someone has left me a bit of computer time.
I just showed people from Japan & Iraq how to make pancakes. I'll write more when I get home.
This is what diplomacy looks like.
Posted by: DiAnne at November 21, 2005 12:02 PM
Great DiAnne!
I did some diplomacy in Korea too - letting people know that most Americans are decent, caring people, unlike W.
Nice piece, Suz Kruger. Especially given that Mr. Scanlon has "flipped".
Let's watch what happens "As Congress Turns...", its too bad that Congress has now become the soap opera/reality/game show that it has, but these guys are making truth weirder than fiction.
Only wish that they would stop lining their pockets with our tax dollars and do some actual WORK for a change...
Losing the Fear Factor
How The Bush Administration Got Spooked
Tom Engelhardt
November 21 , 2005
It's finally Wizard of Oz time in America. You know -- that moment when the curtains are pulled back, the fearsome-looking wizard wreathed in all that billowing smoke turns out to be some pitiful little guy, and everybody looks around sheepishly, wondering why they acted as they did for so long.
Starting on September 11, 2001 -- with a monstrous helping hand from Osama bin Laden -- the Bush administration played the fear card with unbelievable effectiveness. For years, with its companion "war on terror," it trumped every other card in the American political deck. With an absurd system for color-coding dangers to Americans, the President, Vice President, and the highest officials in this land were able to paint the media a "high" incendiary orange and the Democrats an "elevated" bright yellow, functionally sidelining them.
How stunningly in recent weeks the landscape has altered – almost like your basic hurricane sweeping through some unprotected and unprepared city. Now, to their amazement, Bush administration officials find themselves thrust through the equivalent of a Star-Trekkian wormhole into an anti-universe where everything that once worked for them seems to work against them. As always, in the face of domestic challenge, they have responded by attacking – a tactic that was effective for years. The President, Vice President, National Security Adviser, and others have ramped up their assaults, functionally accusing Democratic critics of little short of treason -- of essentially undermining American forces in the field, if not offering aid and comfort to the enemy. On his recent trip to Asia, the President put it almost as bluntly as his Vice President did at home: "As our troops fight a ruthless enemy determined to destroy our way of life, they deserve to know that their elected leaders who voted to send them into war continue to stand behind them." The Democrats were, he said over and over, "irresponsible" in their attacks. Dick Cheney called them spineless "opportunists" peddling dishonestly for political advantage.
But instead of watching the Democrats fall silent under assault as they have for years, they unexpectedly found themselves facing a roiling oppositional hubbub threatening the unity of their own congressional party. In his sudden, heartfelt attack on Bush administration Iraq plans ("a flawed policy wrapped in illusion") and his call for a six-month timetable for American troop withdrawal, Democratic congressional hawk John Murtha took on the Republicans over their attacks more directly than any mainstream Democrat has ever done. ("I like guys who've never been there that criticize us who've been there. I like that. I like guys who got five deferments and never been there and send people to war, and then don't like to hear suggestions about what needs to be done. I resent the fact, on Veterans Day, he [Bush] criticized Democrats for criticizing them.") Perhaps more important, as an ex-Marine and decorated Vietnam veteran clearly speaking for a military constituency (and possibility some entagon brass), he gave far milder and more "liberal" Democrats cover.
For the first time since the war in Iraq began, "tipping points," constantly announced in Iraq but never quite in sight, have headed for home. Dan Bartlett, counselor to the President and drafter of recent Presidential attacks on the Democrats, told David Sanger of the New York Times that "Bush's decision to fight back? arose after he became concerned the [Iraq] debate was now at a tipping point"; while Howard Fineman of Newsweek dubbed Murtha himself a "one-man tipping point."
more...http://www.mojones.com/commentary/columns/2005/11/losing_the_fear_factor.html
i disagree about the tipping point.
The tipping point was when Cindy Sheehan no longer stood alone. Grassroots political movements terrify Government, that is the only force that can change it.
Never doubt the impact a small group of dedicated people can have on the world. In all human history it is the only force that has ever changed it.
(Tom Delay finds getting arrested the next best thing to Disneyland.)
Haha. LOL. (I am waiting for the "Happy Dance".)
Send Lawyers, Guns & Money
by Warren Zevon
Well, I went home with the waitress
The way I always do
How was I to know
She was with the Russians, too
I was gambling in Havana
I took a little risk
Send lawyers, guns and money
Dad, get me out of this
I'm the innocent bystander
Somehow I got stuck
Between the rock and the hard place
And I'm down on my luck
And I'm down on my luck
And I'm down on my luck
Now I'm hiding in Honduras
I'm a desperate man
Send lawyers, guns and money
The shit has hit the fan
Send lawyers, guns and money...
"The Wall Street Journal's David Rogers Notes that last week's maneuvering in the House "upset many Republicans, and seems to have strengthened Mr. Murtha rather than isolate and embarrass him." Rogers writes that the biggest loser may be Cheney, "who has sought unsuccessfully to keep Congress out of the prisoner-detention debate by claiming it a presidential prerogative."
Rogers has one Senate Republican aide, who watched the House debate with "dismay," saying, "If the House Republicans want to make Jack Murtha the face of the Democratic Party, then Republicans will really be trounced next year."
Lets hope that Jean Schmidt's diatribe will boomarang on Jean Schmidt. If Paul Hackett doesn't defeat Charon Brown in their Ohio primary, hopefully we can persuade him to have a rematch with coward Schmidt. Anyone know if there are other Democratic candidates vying to take on Scmidt next November. Murtha should be the face of the Democrat Party in its runup to November 2006. Voters will take his credibility on military policies long before Dick Cheney.
Cheney: Murtha a 'patriot,' war debate legitimate
But intelligence charges called 'dishonest and reprehensible'
Monday, November 21, 2005; Posted: 1:49 p.m. EST
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Vice President Dick Cheney continued the Bush administration's efforts Monday to pull back on attacks against a decorated war veteran who called for the near-term withdrawal of U.S. troops in Iraq.
But Cheney, in a speech in Washington, excoriated lawmakers who say the United States misused intelligence in the lead-up to the war, calling such complaints "dishonest and reprehensible."
"A few politicians are suggesting these brave Americans were sent into battle for a deliberate falsehood. This is revisionism of the most corrupt and shameless variety. It has no place anywhere in American politics, much less in the United States Senate," he told the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank.
He used the top of his speech -- televised live by CNN and other news networks -- to praise U.S. Rep. John Murtha, "my friend and former colleague." The 17-term Pennsylvania Democrat made news last week when he called for U.S. forces to leave Iraq over a six-month period.
"I disagree with Jack and believe his proposal would not serve the best interest of this nation. But he's a good man, a Marine, a patriot, and he's taking a clear stand in an entirely legitimate discussion," Cheney said.
President Bush similarly praised Murtha on Sunday while on his trip to Asia.
Shift from heated rhetoric
Bush's and Cheney's comments were a far cry from initial comments by White House spokesman Scott McClellan, who last week accused Murtha of "endorsing the policies of Michael Moore and the extreme liberal wing of the Democratic Party."
Amid heavy violence and mounting death tolls in Iraq, some of the largest battles yet over the war have erupted in Washington over recent weeks. Democrats have assailed the administration for not being honest about the conditions in Iraq or, in some cases, about the intelligence that led to the war.
"This administration manipulated and misused intelligence information that rushed us to war," said Sen. Ted Kennedy, D.-Massachusetts, one of the lawmakers leading that charge.
In Monday's speech, Cheney said he has no quarrel with those who want to debate the war or the reasons for being there.
"What is not legitimate and what I will again say is dishonest and reprehensible is the suggestion by some U.S. senators that the president of the United States or any member of his administration purposely misled the American people on prewar intelligence," he said.
"Some of the most irresponsible comments have come from politicians who actually voted in favor of authorizing the use of force against Saddam Hussein. These are elected officials who had access to the intelligence materials. They are known to have a high opinion of their own analytical capabilities."
Many prominent Senate Democrats did support a 2002 resolution supporting the use of force as an option in dealing with Iraq. But many argue that the Bush administration did not give weapons inspectors adequate time to determine whether then-Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction.
Democrats also say the Bush administration's argument that the Senate had access to the same intelligence is false.
Among the examples they point to: a now declassified intelligence estimate from February 2002 in which the Defense Intelligence Agency found it was possible that a key source of intelligence on Iraq "does not know any further details. It is more likely this individual is intentionally misleading the debriefers."
The same document also said Shaykh al-Libi -- a captured al Qaeda operative and another major source of intelligence -- "may be describing scenarios to the debriefers that he knows will retain their interest." The document was not provided to the Senate when it considered the bill authorizing use of force.
Rumsfeld: Charges of intelligence manipulation 'ridiculous'
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, speaking Sunday on CNN's "Late Edition," said, "There is no question that there are fabricators that operate in the intelligence world. And there's also no question but you can find intelligence reports on every side of every issue."
He added, "The implication that there's something amazing about that is just ridiculous."
But the administration also is facing questions on the issue from someone who, until earlier this year, was a top official in the State Department.
Larry Wilkerson, who was former Secretary of State Colin Powell's chief of staff, told CNN on Sunday that after what he has learned about al-Libi's interrogation, "I'd reserve opinion now on whether or not some of the intelligence that led us into Iraq was politicized or not."
more... http://www.cnn.com/2005/POLITICS/11/21/cheney/index.html
Lets hope that Jean Schmidt's diatribe will boomarang on the Republican chickenhawks' call to stay the course.
Ira:
Jean's wardrobe selection on Friday was enough to scare anybody.
Turning the Corner in Iraq U.S. Senator Joseph R. Biden, Jr. Council on Foreign Relations November 21, 2005
Mr. BIDEN: Today, I want to talk to you about Iraq. I want to start by the addressing the question on the minds of most Americans: when will we bring our troops home?
Here is my conviction: in 2006, American troops will begin to leave Iraq in large numbers. By the end of the year, I believe we will have redeployed at least 50,000 troops. In 2007, a significant number of the remaining 100,000 American soldiers will follow.
But the real question is this: as Americans start to come home, will we leave Iraq with our fundamental security interests intact or will we have traded a dictator for chaos?
By misrepresenting the facts, misunderstanding Iraq, and misleading on the war, this Administration has brought us to the verge of a national security debacle.
As a result, many Americans have already concluded that we cannot salvage Iraq. We should bring all our forces home as soon as possible.
They include some of the most respected voices on military matters in this country, like Congressman Jack Murtha. They're mindful of the terrible consequences from withdrawing. But even worse, in their judgment, would be to leave Americans to fight - and to die - in Iraq with no strategy for success.
I share their frustration. But I'm not there yet. I still believe we can preserve our fundamental security interests in Iraq as we begin to redeploy our forces.
That will require the not to stay the course, but to change course and to do it now.
And though it may not seem like it, there is actually a broad consensus on what the must do.
Last week, 79 Democrats and Republicans in the Senate came together and said to the President: we need a plan for Iraq.
Level with us. Give us specific goals and a timetable for achieving each one so we know exactly where we are and where we are going.
As I have been urging for some time, that will require as many changes at home as on the ground. The gap between the Administration's rhetoric and the reality of Iraq has opened a huge credibility chasm with the American people.
The problem has been compounded by the President's failure to explain in detail his strategy and to report regularly on both the progress and the problems.
As David Brooks reminded us in the New York Times yesterday, "Franklin Roosevelt asked Americans to spread out maps before them and he described, step by step, what was going on in World War II, where the U.S. was winning and where it was losing. Why can't today's president do that? Why can't he show that he is aware that his biggest problem is not in Iraq, it's on the home front?"
I want to see the President regain the American people's trust. It is vital to our young men and women in Iraq today -- and to our security -- that we get this right. George Bush is our President - and he will be there for another three years. I want him to succeed.
Leveling with the American people is essential, but it is not enough.
The President has to be realistic about the mission and forget his grandiose goals. Iraq will not become a model democracy anytime soon.
more: http://rawstory.com/news/2005/Biden_delivering_speech_on_Iraq_1121.html
Cheney: Retreat would let terrorists run Iraq
Vice president counters Rep. Murtha, rips into Senate Democrats
Updated: 2:09 p.m. ET Nov. 21, 2005
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON - Vice President Dick Cheney on Monday said he strongly disagrees with a battle-tested congressman who advocates quickly pulling all U.S. troops from Iraq, calling such a proposal “a dangerous illusion.”
But Cheney stopped short of joining those Republicans who have questioned the patriotism and courage of Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., calling him “a good man, a Marine, a patriot.” Cheney’s subdued comments about Murtha followed those of President Bush and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.
At the same time, Cheney pressed the administration’s high-voltage attack on war critics, particularly Senate Democrats who voted in October 2002 to give Bush authority to go to war in Iraq and who now oppose his policy, calling them “dishonest and reprehensible.”
“The flaws in the intelligence are plain enough in hindsight. But any suggestion that prewar information was distorted, hyped or fabricated by the leader of the nation is utterly false,” Cheney said in a speech to the American Enterprise Institute.
Retreat and resolve
As to proposals for a rapid pullout of U.S. troops, Cheney said, “It is a dangerous illusion to suppose that another retreat by the civilized world would satisfy the appetite of the terrorists and get them to leave us alone.” Nearly 160,000 U.S. troops remain in Iraq.
Cheney ticked off a long list of terrorist attacks on American interests going back more than the two decades that preceded the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, including the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and earlier ones in Beirut, Saudi Arabia and Africa.
“Now they’re making a stand in Iraq, testing our resolve, trying to intimidate the United States into abandoning our friends and permitting the overthrow of this new Middle Eastern democracy,” Cheney said.
He said he respected the right of Murtha to form his own opinion. Murtha has served in Congress for three decades, is a decorated Marine combat veteran from Vietnam, the top Democrat on the House Appropriations defense subcommittee and has long been an ardent defender of the armed forces.
“Nor is there any problem with debating whether the United States and its allies should have liberated Iraq in the first place,” Cheney said. “Nobody is saying we should not be having this discussion.”
But, Cheney added, “Those who advocate a sudden withdrawal from Iraq should answer a few simple questions,” including whether the United States be “better off or worse off” with terror leaders such as Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, Osama bin Laden, or Ayman al-Zawahiri in control?
Murtha elaborates
On Monday, Murtha defended his call to get out of Iraq, saying he was reflecting Americans’ sentiment.
“The public turned against this war before I said it,” Murtha said, speaking in his hometown of Johnstown, Pa. “The public is emotionally tied into finding a solution to this thing, and that’s what I hope this administration is going to find out.”
Murtha, first elected to Congress in 1974, said his great-grandfather served in the Civil War, his father and three uncles in World War II, and that he and his brothers were Marines. Murtha said western Pennsylvania, where his district is located, is a “hotbed of patriotism and they’ve lost confidence in this effort.”
He said Iraqis must take control of their own destiny. “We cannot win this militarily. Our tactics themselves keep us from winning,” Murtha said.
“The guys in Congress are scared to death to say anything because they might be vilified,” Murtha said. “The soldiers can’t speak for themselves. We sent them to war and, by God, we’re the ones that have to speak out.”
Rep. Jean Schmidt, R-Ohio, spoke on the House floor Friday about a phone call she got from a Marine colonel who said, “cowards cut and run, Marines never do.” Asked about it, Murtha called the comment ridiculous.
“You can’t spin this. You’ve got to have a real solution,” Murtha said. “This is not a war of words, this is a war.”
Murtha said he specifically asked more liberal members of his party not to step forward to support him because “I didn’t want (the public) to think this was a Democrat position plotted from the left wing.” And he expressed confidence that terrorist bombings in Iraq would cease once U.S. troops were gone and Iraqis became solely responsible for their destiny.
more... http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10140228/
At a press conference with reporters along for his trip to China, President Bush found several questions relating to the current debate back in the States over the Iraq pullout plan pushed by Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.).
Among other things, he said "the progress in Iraq is amazing" and rejected Murtha's complaint about Vice President Cheney, who received five deferments during the Vietnam war, questioning the "backbone" of Iraq war critics who had served in battle. "I don't think the Vice President's service is relevant in this debate," Bush said.
He also hailed "fine Democrats like Senator Joe Lieberman share the view that we must prevail in Iraq."
MOVE ON AD CAMPAIGN RE: TROOPS; MURTHA ETC...
Dear MoveOn member,
Last week a real debate about how to change course in Iraq started in Congress. Now Republicans and the Bush administration are lashing out—trying to smear their critics. They called former war-supporter and Vietnam veteran Rep. John P. Murtha (D-PA) a "coward."1 A new Republican TV ad attacks Democratic Senate Leader Harry Reid in his hometown.2
To make sure the Republican offensive doesn't silence critics we've put together a new TV ad. But to put the ad on the air, we need to raise $250,000 today. Just $50 from 5,000 of us will make a big difference.
We will only be able to run this ad if we raise the money today because the ad departments at TV stations close earlier for Thanksgiving week.
Even a small contribution will put the ad on the air if we all chip in. If we beat the goal, we can expand the ad to the hometowns of Republican members of Congress who are pushing these smears.
This is a critical moment. The Bush administration and the Republicans in Congress are backed into a corner and trying to slash their way out by casting war critics as cowards. We've got to stay on the offensive.
Together we can encourage voters in these representative's hometowns to let them know they want a plan for getting out of Iraq. With the president's approval ratings below 40 percent and the Iraq war more unpopular than ever, we're finding that Americans are with us even in towns historically supportive of the war.
The TV ad can make a big difference if we act quickly. MoveOn is entirely member funded so it is up to each of us.
The ad, titled "Home for the Holidays," uses the backdrop of a Thanksgiving dinner to remind viewers that their representative should support a plan to bring the troops home. (Check out the story board in this e-mail.) The ad closes by urging people to call their representative and ask him or her to "Support the troops and bring them home."
If we can swamp them with thousands of calls from the ads they'll get the message that smearing leaders who are working to get us out of Iraq is the wrong choice.
Democrats in Congress did their part by starting a real debate about Iraq. Now it is our turn with this new TV ad. It will help end the war and make clear that, in 2006, we need to change course in Iraq and change course on Election Day.
Thanks for all you do,
–Tom, Rosalyn, Eli, Jennifer and the MoveOn.org Political Action Team
Monday, November 21st, 2005
Sources:
1. "'Mean Jean' Goes to Washington, and Invites a Firestorm," The New York Times, November 20, 2005.
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=1172
2. "Attack on Critics: RNC ad targets Reid," Las Vegas Review-Journal. November 18, 2005.
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=1173
[Edited]
Feel free to reference the moveon.com site for more information if you're interested in their ad campaign
http://political.moveon.org/donate/thanksgiving.html
For those who are interested, here's a post from this weekend from a dailykos poster and his analysis of "The 14 hottest House races of 2006".
http://www.dailykos.com/hotlist/add/2005/11/19/122947/13/displaystory//
He also hailed "fine Democrats like Senator Joe Lieberman share the view that we must prevail in Iraq."
Posted by: monkey at November 21, 2005 02:19 PM
Fine, just fine.
For those who are interested, here's a post from this weekend from a dailykos poster and his analysis of "The 14 hottest House races of 2006".
http://www.dailykos.com/hotlist/add/2005/11/19/122947/13/displaystory//
Posted by: dwahzon at November 21, 2005 03:04 PM
Thanks a bunch. Very interested.
While trying to find a picture of Jean Schmidt taken on Friday I came across this from Tom Joyner, a leading black radio personality. Excellent talking points, and he backs up Fe's comment about the outfit.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~snip~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
That woman, Rep. Jean Schmidt, would have known better had she read, or cared about, the House rules. They don't allow personal attacks on colleagues or negative references to members of the Senate either. But, apparently, Schmidt was no more aware of the impropriety of that than of the inappropriateness of a woman in her 50s wearing a bow in her hair in public.
http://www.blackamericaweb.com/site.aspx/sayitloud/mathis1121
Cheney's poll numbers have slipped to 30% this month. Excellent spokesman. Bring it on!
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/linkset/2005/04/11/LI2005041100879.html
Posted by: Ladytechie at November 21, 2005 03:56 PM
Ladytechnie:
The outfit I was referring to was described by the press as "a gym outfit that had a collision with a 4th of July napkin set."
here ya go:
http://thinkprogress.org/2005/11/18/schmidt-shame/
Thanks, Fe; I needed that laugh..
http://firedoglake.blogspot.com/2005/11/scariest-words-in-washington.html
Michael Scanlon pleaded guilty by information today in Federal Court to a charge of conspiracy, according to the NYTimes.
Mr. Scanlon agreed to pay restitution totaling more than $19 million to the tribes, The Associated Press reported from the courtroom, and could face up to five years in prison.
Mr. Scanlon, 35, was accused of conspiring to defraud Indian tribes out of millions of dollars as part of a lobbying and corruption scheme that involved wining and dining of some lawmakers, treating them to lavish trips and contributing to their campaigns.
**********
My question: How much restitution does he pay the American tax payers as well as the citizens whose trust he broke?
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=1173
[Edited]
Feel free to reference the moveon.com site for more information if you're interested in their ad campaign
http://political.moveon.org/donate/thanksgiving.html
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN AT DCP,
Man on man, do I dislike my posts being censored....
Please explain your policy about posting Move On material, or any other material from 3rd party interest groups. If your policy is restrictive, nonsensical and fundamentally counter-productive, I will leave this web site, as I did before, go elsewhere.
RH
Thus Spake Joe Biden:
I share their frustration. But I'm not there yet. I still believe we can preserve our fundamental security interests in Iraq as we begin to redeploy our forces.
That will require the not to stay the course, but to change course and to do it now.
And though it may not seem like it, there is actually a broad consensus on what the must do.
Last week, 79 Democrats and Republicans in the Senate came together and said to the President: we need a plan for Iraq.
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
Biden has two huge problems to overcome when analysizing war:
1) He thinks way too much
2) He has never seen combat war like Murtha, Kerry and Colin Powell have.
Ralph,
We have no problem with posts that educate people about different issues and how they're being addressed by different people and organizations including Moveon. But as a 501-c-3 organization, we cannot link directly to or promote fundraising by 527's, PACs and so on.
The post was edited so that it still provided the information that MoveOn was looking to develop a new message which is educational and informative.
A link to the Moveon site was added to the bottom for those who wished to find out more.
Please do not stop letting us know about these items. Your posts are an important contribution to the DCP.
Thanks for the time you take to post and keep us informed.
I agree wholeheartedly with the following observations:
The young man who is going to Iraq thinks he is doing his duty but he is cannon fodder for rich stupid white men. I for one do not feel one bit safer with US citizens fighting "over there" some place. It makes me horribly angry & frustrated & I think it's unfair to everyone. Someone is doing a good job of brainwashing.
Young men and women are sometimes made to feel guilty or unpatriotic if they don't sacrifice themselves for a greater principle - and they are not doing what they think they are doing. Then the justifiers compare war to war - Bush compares what is going on in the middle east now to WW2. My dad would roll over in his grave.
There is not one war that could not have been avoided had people known how to communicate. I am convinced. Where are the leaders - why do we not learn about geography, language, culture? The Pew survey shows Americans are now becoming more isolationist but even then, there is a selfishness.
I wish I had a dollar for every time I've heard someone talk about solving things here first - it's not possible any more to separate domestic and international - it's a false dichotomy. We are all connected. The Londoner from Iraq is travelling to Mexico today. He will see the poverty that I saw yesterday - juxtaposed with relative affluence here. He will take that perception back to London with him & mull it around in his head with the picture he saw of his country in shambles. He'll have to make sense of it
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
The war is impacting practically everything that involves the federal government. The war is sucking resources - human and financial - out of this country and wasting them in the sink hole which is now Iraq.
We don't have enough National Guard troops in this country to help with hurricane disasters - rescue, maintaining order and cleaning up.
We don't have money for Katrina recontruction
We don't have money for medicaid
We don't have money for food stamps
We don't have money for student loans
We don't have any where near the money to reform Social Security and Medicare
And, of course, we don't have money for national health insurance....
As they say in economics - many times a country must choose between guns and butter...
AOL once again advancing the liberal/anti-war agenda tonight:
http://aolsvc.news.aol.com/news/article.adp?id=20051121100409990001&ncid=NWS00010000000001
WAR OF WORDS - WAR IN IRAQ , the war and the policy of war are front and center. Here are the AOL poll questions (some are annoyingly poorly worded)
What should we do with troop levels in Iraq?
Decrease 49%
Maintain 31%
Increase 20%
Total Votes: 54,564
Note on Poll Results
Does criticism of the war in Iraq hurt the troops?
Yes 54%
No 46%
Total Votes: 53,922
Note on Poll Results
How much progress is being made in Iraq?
None 39%
A lot 34%
A little 27%
How has your opinion of the war changed since it began?
I support it less 35%
No change 34%
I support it more 26%
I go back and forth 5%
Total Votes: 43,457
Note on Poll Results
A bit of satire from Patriot Boy
She'll get you, Rep. Murtha, you little pretty
Rep. Jean Schmidt
US House of Representatives
Dear Representative Schmidt,
It's about time someone called Rep. Murtha to account for the cowardice he's shown during America's darkest times. When Sen. McCarthy needed him to fight the war of ideas by exposing the communist professors on our campuses, Murtha left his college and slunk off to hide out with the Marines. When Strom Thurmond needed him to beat up the uppity brown people holding sit-ins at our finest drug store lunch counters, Murtha wormed his way over to Vietnam. And while you were voting to cut the taxes of our best Americans and take away food stamps and health benefits from the un-moneyed rabble who don't deserve America's bounty, he was calling for us to abandon the fledgling Islamic theocracy we're building in Iraq.
Unfortunately, calling him a coward was not enough. It gained us nothing but America's hatred. You should have done more. You should have sent your flying monkeys to knock him down, take the stuffing out of him, and light it on fire.
It's not too late. You can still do it. Unleash your flying monkeys now. Otherwise, he'll be coming for you with a bucket of water.
Heterosexually yours,
Gen. JC Christian, patriot
Heterosexually yours,
Gen. JC Christian, patriot
Posted by: Truth Shall Prevail at November 21, 2005 08:43 PM
LOLOLOL!!!!!
Careful - you will anger the Republican Cristo-Fascist Dogs......
Oh BTW:
Apparently Jean S. has a habit of inserting her foot into her mouth, so say some Ohio observers. It might a very interesting year with Ms. Jean in Congress!!!!
I must say it was quite dramatic of Ms. Jean - bursting into the chamber and walking down to the microphone with her little slip of paper to deliver her stupid little message.
(I called her office today and asked that she retract her statement.)
DICK CHENEY:
ANOTHER HIT AND RUN IN WASHINGTON D.C. - THIS TIME AT THE AMERICAN ENTERPRISE INSTITUTE.
I just love how Dick Cheney gives big speeches full of elaborate and scary lies and awful personal attacks and then.... he closes his speech book and leave out the back.... talking not a single question, usually speeking to no one afterwards.
I am calling it the Cheney Hit and Run.
I am calling it the Cheney Hit and Run.
Posted by: ralpheh at November 21, 2005 10:11 PM
Great line Ralph.
Posted by: ralpheh at November 21, 2005 08:31 PM
Those online polls got freeped!
In keeping with the discussion of Cheney today, I just HAD TA show you this picture of Dick Cheney.
http://home.att.net/~jrhsc/thedick.jpg