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The Tipping Point of Absolute Moral Authority
Since last Friday when Congressman John Murtha (D-PA) made his historic call for redeployment of troops from Iraq, people have been wondering why his statement has garnered such attention.
Russ Feingold made a proposal earlier this year. Dennis Kucinich has been calling for the withdrawal of troops from Iraq since the beginning of the war.
Why is John Murtha different?
If you ask Congressman Murtha, he will tell you that even he doesn't know for sure, but he thinks that people know we are losing this war, and they are thirsting for a solution.
That may be close, but I don't think that is quite right.
I think John Murtha has become the tipping point for the moderate Republicans who supported Iraq War for the same reason that Cindy Sheehan became the tipping point for the centrist Democrats who supported the Iraq War. They both have absolute moral authority.
Cindy Sheehan's absolute moral authority arose from her's son Casey's death on April 4, 2004, moving her forever from motherhood to iconic peace activist. She became the voice of all parents in America who question the government's moral authority to send our children to war for a cause that cannot, to this day, be enunciated.
But something was still missing from the fight against the War In Iraq.
Enter Valerie Plame and Patrick Fitzgerald. The Valerie Plame investigation had the ability to go nowhere, except for the diligent leadership of one man in full moral character, Patrick Fitzgerald.
Patrick Fitzgerald gained his absolute legal moral authority from his history of prosecuting democrats and terrorists, and being appointed by a Republican acting US Attorney General, James Comey. His moral authority was further conferred on him by no less that the President of the United States himself, George Bush.
In the process of investigating the White House leak of Valerie Plame's CIA identity, Fitzgerald uncovered a warren of sub-strata political dealings to advance the dubious and factually challenged causus belli by an increasingly large number of White House staff and officials acting under the color of Presidential and Vice-Presidential authority.
Because of his moral authority, Patrick Fitzgerald's investigation has been imbued with a deeply felt sense that this is a man who has been able to uncover a truth that had been heretofore unknown.
But something was still missing from the fight against the War in Iraq.
Enter Jack Murtha, Democratic hawk, decorated war hero (in two wars), retired Marine Colonel of 38 years experience, and fifteen term Congressman from the blue collar district of Johnstown, Pennsylvania.
Jack Murtha's moral authority derives from his standing both as a long-time Marine, and long-time supporter of the Military in Congress. He is well-known and well-liked by both sides of the aisle, and he is the best friend a soldier in the field could hope for.
But there is something more to Jack Murtha. He visits troops every week in the hospital. Every week. He drives by Arlington National Cemetary every day on his way to work in Congress. Every day. Those two experiences, combined with his battlefield decorations, give Jack Murtha's voice on the subject of war the distinct "ring of truth".
We all know the truth when we hear it.
The truth is something that enter your body through your gut, not your ears. Your ears hear words. Your soul hears truth.
The truth has an absolute moral authority of its own.
Cindy Sheehan speaks truth.
Patrick Fitzgerald speaks truth.
Jack Murtha speaks truth.
When you combine the absolute moral authority of truth with the absolute moral authority of Cindy Sheehan's maternal grief, Patrick Fitzgerald's righteous pursuit of the Rule of Law, and Jack Murtha's hardened courage, you have exceeded the tipping point.
The Iraq War is over.
The only question remaining is how many more will die before our government realizes what the people have decided.
Great post, Casey! Gladwell writes that what tips an idea over is, in part, the presence of networkers, mavens, and deal-closers. Cindy Sheehan is a networker, Fitzgerald is a maven, and John Murtha is definitely a deal-closer.
Everyone--we have a contest going for the next few days--check out the front page of the website and grab your Thesaurus:
Dick Cheney is running out of clever phrases to describe his enemies. He needs help!
We're here for him...
(cleverness counts)
In Memoriam - 42 years ago, John Fitzgerald Kennedy.
Just catching up since I was hit with a worm yesterday (well not me but my PC!)
Fe- THANK YOU for that lovely pix and description of JS- put that on a few billboards when she runs again!!!
The Poodle Barks Back
Blair talked Bush out of bombing al-Jazeera
Nov 22, 2:39 AM ET
LONDON (AFP) - US President George W. Bush planned to bomb pan-Arab television broadcaster al-Jazeera, British newspaper the Daily Mirror said, citing a Downing Street memo marked "Top Secret".
The five-page transcript of a conversation between Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair reveals that Blair talked Bush out of launching a military strike on the station, unnamed sources told the daily which is against the war in Iraq.
The transcript of the pair's talks during Blair's April 16, 2004 visit to Washington allegedly shows Bush wanted to attack the satellite channel's headquarters.
Blair allegedly feared such a strike, in the business district of Doha, the capital of Qatar, a key western ally in the Persian Gulf, would spark revenge attacks.
The Mirror quoted an unnamed British government official as saying Bush's threat was "humorous, not serious".
Al-Jazeera's perspectives on the war in Iraq have drawn criticism from Washington since the US-led March 2003 invasion.
The station has broadcast messages from Al-Qaeda terror network chief Osama bin Laden and the beheadings of Western hostages by insurgents in Iraq, as well as footage of dead coalition servicemen and Iraqi civilians killed in fighting.
A source told the Mirror: "The memo is explosive and hugely damaging to Bush.
"He made clear he wanted to bomb al-Jazeera in Qatar and elsewhere. Blair replied that would cause a big problem.
"There's no doubt what Bush wanted to do -- and no doubt Blair didn't want him to do it."
Another source said: "Bush was deadly serious, as was Blair. That much is absolutely clear from the language used by both men."
A spokesman for Blair's Downing Street office said: "We have got nothing to say about this story. We don't comment on leaked documents."
The Mirror said the memo turned up in the office of then British lawmaker Tony Clarke, a member of Blair's Labour Party, in May 2004.
Civil servant David Keogh, 49, is accused under the Official Secrets Act of handing it to Clarke's former researcher Leo O'Connor, 42. Both are bailed to appear at Bow Street Magistrates Court in central London next week.
Clarke returned the memo to Downing Street. He said O'Connor had behaved "pefectly correctly".
He told Britain's domestic Press Association news agency that O'Connor had done "exactly the right thing" in bringing it to his attention.
The Mirror said such a strike would have been "the most spectacular foreign policy disaster since the Iraq war itself."
The newspaper said that the memo "casts fresh doubt on claims that other attacks on al-Jazeera were accidents". It cited the 2001 direct hit on the channel's Kabul office.
Blair's former defence minister Peter Kilfoyle challenged Downing Street to publish the transcript.
"I hope the prime minister insists this memo be published," he told the Mirror.
"It gives an insight into the mindset of those whe were architects of the war."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20051122/wl_uk_afp/qatarusbritainmediajazeera_051122073919
Here's an interesting article... a hair of tongue in cheek. An observation on the apparent sea change in how things are being covered in the US press from the Asia Times.
Nov 22, 2005
DISPATCHES FROM AMERICA
How the Bush administration got spooked
By Tom Engelhardt
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.
read the rest here...
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/GK22Ak01.html
Iraqi leaders call for U.S. withdrawal timetable
Community leaders say opposition has 'legitimate right' of resistance
Updated: 7:40 a.m. ET Nov. 22, 2005
The Associated Press
CAIRO, Egypt - Leaders of Iraq’s sharply divided Shiites, Kurds and Sunnis called Monday for a timetable for the withdrawal of U.S.-led forces in the country and said Iraq’s opposition had a “legitimate right” of resistance.
The final communique, hammered out at the end of three days of negotiations at a preparatory reconciliation conference under the auspices of the Arab League, condemned terrorism, but was a clear acknowledgment of the Sunni position that insurgents should not be labeled as terrorists if their operations do not target innocent civilians or institutions designed to provide for the welfare of Iraqi citizens.
The participants in Cairo agreed on “calling for the withdrawal of foreign troops according to a timetable, through putting in place an immediate national program to rebuild the armed forces ... control the borders and the security situation” and end terror attacks.
more... http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10147801/
Financial Times reports that Scanlon's guilty plea may result in more woes for DeLay, this time from federal prosecutors... And yet, Tommy Boy's big buddy Dick will still campaign for him on Dec. 5 in Sugarland...
Threat of federal charges against DeLay grows
The likelihood of federal charges against members of Congress intensified on Monday when a key player in a broad corruption probe pleaded guilty to conspiracy and agreed to co-operate with investigators.
--snip--
Court papers in Mr Scanlon’s case also allege that a congressman received campaign contributions and valuable gifts, including a trip to Scotland to play golf, in exchange for official acts to benefit clients of Mr Scanlon and Mr Abramoff.
The case against Mr Scanlon is being led by the department’s Public Integrity office, a division that oversees the prosecution of elected and appointed public officials.
--snip--
The action by the DoJ potentially represents a serious threat to several lawmakers.
--snip--
Mr DeLay and his supporters have accused Travis County district attorney Ronnie Earle, a Democrat, of being on a political witchhunt.
It would be more difficult for Mr DeLay or other Republicans to make such claims about federal prosecutors.
http://news.ft.com/cms/s/54766a12-5aeb-11da-8628-0000779e2340.html
WAR HUMOR
Dick Cheney said today, "We operated on the best available intelligence, gathered over a period of years from within a totalitarian society ruled by fear and secret police." Yikes!
Here is where the most important evidence came from:
"Curveball is a psychologically-unstable cab-driving sex offender. And his "water-cooler gossip" is the evidence used to go to war.
White House used 'gossip' to build case for war
By Rupert Cornwell in Washington
The controversy in America over pre-war intelligence has intensified, with
revelations that the Bush administration exaggerated the claims of a key source on Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction, despite repeated warnings before the invasion that his information was at best dubious, if not downright wrong.
The disclosure, in The Los Angeles Times, came after a week of vitriolic debate on Iraq, amid growing demands for a speedy withdrawal of US troops and tirades from Bush spokesmen who all but branded as a traitor anyone who suggested that intelligence was deliberately skewed to make the case for war.
Yesterday Donald Rumsfeld, the Defence Secretary, joined the fray, saying that talk of manipulation of intelligence "does great disservice to the
country".
In Beijing, President George Bush said that a speedy pullout was "a recipe for disaster" - but the proportion of Americans wanting precisely that (52 per cent according to a new poll) is now higher than wanted similar action in 1970, at the height of the Vietnam war.
In an extraordinary detailed account, the Times charted the history of the source, codenamed Curveball, an Iraqi chemical engineer who arrived in Germany in 1999 seeking political asylum, and told the German intelligence service, the BND, how Saddam Hussein had developed mobile laboratories to produce biological weapons.
But by summer 2002, his claims had been thrown into grave doubt. Five senior BND officials told the newspaper they warned the CIA that Curveball
never claimed to have been involved in germ weapons production, and never saw anyone else do so. His information was mostly vague, secondhand and impossible to confirm, they told the Americans - "watercooler gossip" according to one source.
Nonetheless the CIA would hear none of the doubts. President Bush referred to Curveball's tale in his January 2003 State of the Union address, and the alleged mobile labs were a central claim in the now notorious presentation
to the United Nations by Colin Powell, then Secretary of State, in February 2003, making the case for war.
The senior BND officer who supervised Curveball's case said he was aghast when he watched Mr Powell overstate Curveball's case. "We were shocked," he
said. "We had always told them it was not proven ... It was not hard intelligence."
The Iraqi, it now is clear, told his story to bolster his quest for a German residence visa. According to BND officials, he was psychologically unstable.
The debacle became complete when American investigators, sent after the invasion to find evidence of the WMDs, instead discovered Curveball's personnel file in Baghdad. It showed he had been a low-level trainee engineer, not a project chief or site manager, as the CIA had insisted. Moreover he had been dismissed in 1995 - just when he claimed to have begun work on bio-warfare trucks.
Curveball was also apparently jailed for a sex crime and then drove a Baghdad taxi.
The latest disclosures come at an especially delicate moment, as the Senate Intelligence Committee is about to resume a long-stalled inquiry into the administration's use of pre-war intelligence. Committee members said last week that the Curveball case would be a key part of their review. House Democrats are calling for a similar inquiry.
(snip)
Intelligence red herrings
* Curveball: The Iraqi chemical engineer in his late twenties who defected to Germany in 1995, with tales of mobile germ weapons laboratories that were dubious before the invasion, and later shown to be false. The CIA brushed aside all doubts.
* Ahmed Chalabi: The exiled Iraqi leader won his way into the favour of the Pentagon. Defectors he brought to US attention proved to be false, as was his claim that US invaders would be met with bouquets.
* Iraq's quest to buy uranium from Niger: This claim was based on forged documents originating in Italy, but President Bush repeated it in his 2003 State of the Union speech.
* The aluminium tubes affair: Saddam was said to be seeking parts for a centrifuge for use in making a nuclear weapon. Analysts' doubts were
disregarded.
Casey -
GREAT post - hits the nail on the head. The administration's immediate attack on Murtha made it clear that they were terrified. He is untouchable in his authority on the subject, and they know it. He makes it OK for hawks to say "maybe we need to take a closer look - maybe we have been wrong". He just gave a whole lot of people permission to emerge from the fog.
People like Murtha, Cindy Sheehan, and Fitzgerald actually give me a little pride in our country (something that's hard to come by these days), and renewed faith that good does triumph in the end.
Posted by: DiAnne at November 22, 2005 09:18 AM
DiAnne's article is from yesterday's edition of The Independent.
Here's the link...
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article328244.ece
Tom DeLay goes back to court
Attorneys will seek dismissal of charges
Tuesday, November 22, 2005; Posted: 8:12 a.m. EST
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) -- Attorneys for Rep. Tom DeLay are hoping a judge will dismiss the conspiracy and money laundering charges against the former House majority leader, so he can regain the powerful seat.
DeLay was to appear in court Tuesday before a judge who will decide whether the criminal case should continue to trial.
DeLay had to relinquish his leadership post in Congress after he was indicted in September. His attorneys are pushing for a December trial in hopes that DeLay is cleared, so he can regain his title before Congress returns to session in January. Otherwise lawmakers could elect a new majority leader.
Tuesday's hearing is DeLay's first before Senior Judge Pat Priest, who was appointed to the case after DeLay's attorneys succeeded in having the first judge removed because of his campaign contributions to Democratic candidates and causes.
DeLay is accused of funneling $190,000 in restricted corporate money from his Texas political action committee to an arm of the Republican National Committee, which then gave the same amount of money to Texas legislative candidates in 2002. The direct use of corporate money for political purposes is illegal in Texas.
DeLay's attorney, Dick DeGuerin, has filed multiple legal briefs detailing why he believes the charges against the lawmaker should be dismissed.
The defense contends, for example, that DeLay shouldn't be charged with conspiracy to violate the election code, because the law wasn't on the books until 2003, a year after DeLay's alleged offenses occurred.
Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle has said state law has long defined conspiracy as an agreement to commit any felony, including a violation of the election code.
DeLay's attorneys also want to have the trial moved from liberal-leaning Austin, where they say he cannot get a fair trial, to his home county of Fort Bend. But that issue likely won't be decided until a later hearing.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10147801/
Posted by: monkey at November 22, 2005 09:13 AM
I was going to post this link, but Monkey already did.
The Iraqis want us out! What reason would we have for not doing what they ask? That what their sovereignty is all about. If we don't provide them with a timetable, then we're just proving to the Iraqi people (read: insurgents, because that is 95% Iraqi) that we are foreign invaders occupying their country.
Murtha is right. Kucinich is right. Actually, I think Kucinich has as much moral authority as Murtha, because he saw before any of the other congressmen that this was an immoral war. Anyway, we need no more excuses to leave than that, and the hawks have lost any moral and political authority for staying in Iraq with this call for our timetable of "redeployment".
Bill Moyers has a great column featured on HuffPost today that goes back into his journalistic roots...
Well worth reading the whole thing but here are two great quotes from the article:
It took me a long time to catch up—to realize that what matters in journalism is not how close you are to power but how close you are to the truth.
And:
[Bill quotes his friend and colleague, Ronny Dugger..]
Telling the whole truth is not an exercise to be limited to children before they reach the age of reason. It is the indispensable requirement for an effective democracy. If the press and the politicians lie to the people, or hide those parts of the truth which trouble the conscience or offend a friend, how can the people’s falsely-based decisions be trusted?
---------------
There's lots more about what's happening today.
Enjoy...
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bill-moyers/the-texas-observer-_b_10990.html
Dwahzon
Thanks for the link! I got it from Bert without the full source & it had a reference to the disclosure being printed in the LA Times but I cut a couple things out for length. I would have had to do a news search for the title & I have to run to work, but wanted to tie the "humor" of Dick Cheney to the scumball facts! Have great day! Nice to have someone who reads things thoroughly.
Cheney's "comment" at the top comes from democrats.com - that's what made me remember the article, which I had received yesterday.
One more must read for today... to pass along to your right wing acquaintances when they talk about supporting the troops...
from Paul Riechkoff at HuffPost today, he shares a letter from a colleague in Iraq...
A Letter from Ramadi--"I Wish Every American Could See This for Him/Herself"
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/paul-rieckhoff/a-letter-from-ramadii-_b_11050.html
matthew: Is today the anniversary of the loss of JFK? If so we should have a tribute here today, so that we can honor and commemerate a true leader of our country and what he brought to our nation. The days when the concept of being a uniter and not a divider and bringing this country together really meant something other than hollow words. The days when all of us could really say we were so proud of our leaders and what respect JFK brought to this country around the world. It still brings a tear to my eye when I think back on that fateful day 42 years ago when I was in 6th grade and the emptiness we all felt on that very sad day. While it was almost a 1/2 century ago, to me it feels like it was just yesterday.
Curious if others caught the C-SPAN commeration to RFK's 80th birthday and the moving stories told by JK and Frank Mankewitz.
On a more upbeat mood it was wonderful to hear again from Marc Trager and Indy yesterday. Marc we have really missed you here seems like forever on the JFK site and Indy thanks for the wonderful work you and your family are doing in N.O. Your work represents what Thanksgiving is all about.
I am off to Richmond for the holdiays and hope to stop by the Warner for President office and say my congrats to Governor Kaine.
We should be really proud of the growth of this site in one short year. Just think of where we will be in '06 and '08 as a community.
OT - for amazement, and quirkiness, :) go here:
http://www.skateboardingbulldog.com/picsandmovies.htm
and click on scroll to "movies of Tyson skating"
I was walking up the steps in my junior high school (they called them that back then, instead of middle school), when a boy ran past me and said JFK had just been shot. I was 13 years old at the time, and I could not believe it.
Wnen I reached the top of the stairs, someone had smuggled a small TV into my English Teacher, Mrs. Brachett's, room. The cars of the motorcade were rushing to the hospital, but , even then, the news was already grim. The reporters were saying that it was a "serious head wound." No one could believe it. He died just a few minutes later, and our class cried and prayed at the same time. There was a lot of religion in my classroom that day.
This was a Southern classroom, a place where just a few years earlier, most of the kids would have told you JFK was a yankee Catholic who would let the pope rule the US if he got into the White House. Their parents were all voting for Richard Nixon, and there was a huge disappointment when Kennedy took office.
But something changed. On his inauguration day, I had been in the 6th grade, and we had a TV in the room that day too. I sat on top of the Window ledge to be able to see the TV, and JFK spoke in a way I had never heard anyone speak before. He told us to" ask not what our country can do for you, but what you can do for your country." And he said the words that still burn in my memory today- he said that " on this earth, God's work must truly be our own."
I'm not sure if I've phrased those exactly right, but I remember the change that took place in me that day. He was handsome, and he spoke words in a way that an 11 year old could understand. He was magnificent.
Then, a couple of years later, in October, our nation came closer to nuclear war than it ever had before, or ever has since. John Kennedy stood up to the Russians for us, and they backed down. They removed their missles from Cuba. Anyone who was alive back then remembers how frightened we all were. My dad almost bought a fallout shelter until he realized that, if he did, he'd have to turn our neighbors away if they tried to get in. And he didn't want to live that way.
It was a time that, if you've never lived through it, you'll never understand.
John Kennedy saved our country during that crisis, he saved humanity itself. And when he died, we all remembered that- Southerners and Northerners alike. I lay in my bed that night looking out the window (it must have been warm that night, because I remember it was open.) I looked out at the branches of the oak tree outside and I cried myself to sleep.
A Few years ago, I took my kids on a vacation to Washington, and we visited Arlington cemetary. We went to the tomb of the Unknown soldier, the Custis mansion, but we saved the most important spot for last. As we walked up the hill to the Kennedy burial site, there was a huge line of people ahead of us. My daughter asked me why there weren't any lines at any of the other gravesites. My only answer was that this was a man who made us all feel we could change the world by our actions. He started the Peace Corps., he told us we could reach the moon, and he saved our country in October of 1962. And that he spoke to our hearts like no president in my lifetime had done. And none has ever since.
There was man in line in front of me who turned around and told my daughter that I was right. That was exactly why he was there too.
John F Kennedy's flame will live forever in the hearts of my generation. And it will live forever on his grave in Arlington Cemetary.
Very important issue raised by kos poster today
Proposed Bills Will Strip Rights of ALL STATE PRISONERS
by Eddie C
Mon Nov 21, 2005 at 08:47:34 PM PDT
There are presently two bills, S.1088 in the Senate and H.R.3035 in the House of Representatives, which will strip away prisoners right of Habeas corpus.
"Habeas corpus, in layperson's terms, is based on the concept that an individual should be protected from unconstitutional imprisonment or execution. Habeas appeals are used in both death penalty cases and non-death penalty cases to challenge convictions that have been based, in whole or in part, on constitutional violations."
These two bills are being worked on stealthfully while so many other infringements are being focused on. These bills will leave state prisoners with few legal remedies in federal courts when they're wrongfully convicted.
"In Brown v. Vasquez the court observed that the Supreme Court has "recognized the fact that`[t]he writ of habeas corpus is the fundamental instrument for safeguarding individual freedom against arbitrary and lawless state action.'"
These two Bills have an extremely misleading title. The Streamlined Procedures Act of 2005 if passed would drastically decrease safeguards against false imprisonment or execution.
Please, please read the rest of the diary...
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2005/11/21/224734/00
Lots of embedded links to check out in the story as well
BTW- I guess my quotes were pretty close. These are the words I remember that changed the hearts of a lot of Americans towards this young president:
Now the trumpet summons us again--not as a call to bear arms, though arms we need--not as a call to battle, though embattled we are--but a call to bear the burden of a long twilight struggle, year in and year out, rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation--a struggle against the common enemies of man: tyranny, poverty, disease and war itself.
Can we forge against these enemies a grand and global alliance, North and South, East and West, that can assure a more fruitful life for all mankind? Will you join in that historic effort?
In the long history of the world, only a few generations have been granted the role of defending freedom in its hour of maximum danger. I do not shrink from this responsibility, I welcome it. I do not believe that any of us would exchange places with any other people or any other generation. The energy, the faith, the devotion which we bring to this endeavor will light our country and all who serve it--and the glow from that fire will truly light the world.
And so my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you--ask what you can do for your country.
My fellow citizens of the world: Ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man.
Finally, whether you are citizens of America or citizens of the world, ask of us here the same high standards of strength and sacrifice which we ask of you. With a good conscience our only sure reward, with history the final judge of our deeds, let us go forth to lead the land we love, asking His blessing and His help, but knowing that here on earth, Gods work must truly be our own.
JFK was right. I would not change places with any other people or any other generation. Say what you will about us boomers.
We at least had him to inspire us.
And we will NEVER, ever forget him.
Now I'm gonna go have a good cry. :-)
Peace
by Los Lobos
Yeah, yeah, yeah
Yeah, yeah, yeah
Yeah, yeah, yeah
Peace to the world
I see a baby in a crib
Reaching up for Mama's arms
Love is rising in their hearts - oh yeah
There is a man standing on the street
Shouting loud above the crowd
Saying amen to everyone one around - oh yeah
I see a man who loved his land
Laying lifeless on the ground
He said the time is now
To bring peace to the world
Say yeah, yeah, yeah
Yeah, yeah, yeah
Yeah, yeah, yeah
Peace to the world
We build a wall of stone
As high as the trees are tall
Higher then the mountains
Stronger then us all - oh yeah
Some day that wall will crumble
Tumble and fall, the sun will shine
And bring peace to us all
Say yeah, yeah, yeah
Yeah, yeah, yeah
Yeah, yeah, yeah
Bring peace to us all
Bring peace to us all
We build a wall of stone
As high as the trees are tall
Higher then the mountains
Stronger then us all - oh yeah
Some day that wall will crumble
Tumble and fall, the sun will shine
And bring peace to us all
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah
Yeah, yeah, yeah
Yeah, yeah, yeah
Peace to us all
Peace to the world
"Now I'm gonna go have a good cry."
Me too Linda. I was in 6th grade music class when my teacher walked out of my classroom, sat outside our shack on the classroom steps and cried the whole hour. I also recall my dad taking me to Rice Stadium to hear JFK deliver his speech about traveling to the moon in this decade.
Linda as boomers we share the times when our leaders made us feel like a real community rather than red vs blue. I guess it is those memories that make it so difficult for us today to understand how our nation could have gone so far off the deep end. There were millions of Texans that loved JFK but the shame of Dallas still haunts our state. We were not always thought of as the Tom DeLay/Dick Armey/George Bush state. In fact until John Tower was elected to the US Senate, it was rare to see a Republican anywhere in our state politics.
from americablog and John Aravosis:
Iraqi leaders adopt Murtha proposal for withdrawal
by John in DC - 11/22/2005 09:29:00 AM
This is an extremely bizarre and rather earth-shattering story (link: http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-5431131,00.html ).
Basically, Iraq's leaders want us out, and they seem to have just endorsed Congressman Murtha's proposal for a timed withdrawal, a real beefing up of the Iraqi armed forces, and stronger protection at the borders. Even wilder, and something that's not in Murtha's proposal, Iraq's leaders now say it's not terrorism if you attack Americans. It's only terrorism if you attack Iraqi citizens or Iraqi "institutions."
There's really no other way to read this. They want us out and it's clear that we're not listening. They've likely told the Bush administration privately, and now they're going public. This is incredibly embarrassing for Bush. And it's very troubling for all of us. These guys are pretty much telling us to get out, please.
read the rest of John's post...
http://americablog.blogspot.com/2005/11/iraqi-leaders-adopt-murtha-proposal.html
and the part where Sec. Powell said that we would leave when the Iraqi's asked us to leave...
http://americablog.blogspot.com/2005/11/powell-and-bremmer-and-joint-chiefs.html
here is the post reffered to above:
A healthy debate about how and when America should get out of Iraq is now underway in America. Better late than never. The catalyst for this new dialogue is the courageous Congressman John Murtha.
It is perfectly reasonable (and extremely vital) that America discuss and debate the merits of Murtha's proposed plan for withdrawl.
However, some critics have attacked Murtha on the validity of his statements about what is really happening inside Iraq. Statements like, "We cannot win this militarily. Our tactics themselves keep us from winning."
Do you think Murtha is wrong about how things are going in Iraq? Do you feel he is exaggerating what our military is really up against in Iraq? Well, let me give you something to think about.
Recently, I got an email from a very close buddy of mine currently serving as an officer in Ramadi, Iraq. He speaks with a candor and level of frustration that you won't hear from the Generals regurgitating White House talking points on TV. Check this out:
Paul,
I wish I had the time or energy or memory capacity to describe to you how wrong this whole thing has gone. It's just as you described it a couple years ago. We *can* make a difference here, and i believe in the mission as it looks on paper. But your president and his brain-dead colleagues aren't even trying to give us what we need to do it. the add-on armor HMMWVs are a joke. The terrorists target them b/c they know they offer no protection. The M1114s have good armor, but every time we lose one (i had one blown up monday, driver had his femoral artery cut -- will recover fully -- b/c there apparently is no armor or very weak armor under the pedals) it's impossible to replace them. So now I have to send yet another add-on armored vehicle outside the wire daily. The M1114s also have certain mechanical defects, known to the manufacturer, for which there is apparently no known fix. For example, on some of them (like mine) if it stalls or you turn it off, you cannot restart it if the engine is hot. We have to dump 3 liters of cold water on a solenoid in order to start it again. Not that much fun when your vehicle won't start in indian country. I wonder if DoD is getting a refund for the contract. Speaking of contracts, KBR is a joke. I can't even enumerate the problems with their service, but I guarantee they do not receive less money based on how many of the showers don't work, or how many of us won't eat in the chow hall often because we get sick every time we do.
There is so much. I could go on forever. the worst thing, which we have discussed, is that they are playing these bullshit numbers games to fool America about troop strength. If they stopped paying KBR employees $100,000 to do the job of a $28,000 soldier, maybe they'd have enough money to send us enough soldiers to do the job. As it stands we have no offensive capability in the most dangerous city on earth. General Shinseki should write an Op/Ed that basically says, "I told you so." Idiots.
Where are the AC-130s? The apaches? They have them in FAR less active AOs (areas of operations). All we ever get is a single Huey and Cobra team, both of which are older than I am. it's such a joke. They're not even trying. At all. They have apaches in Tikrit but Hueys in Ramadi.
I wish every american could see this for him/herself. Registering your frustration at the ballot box isn't nearly enough. There should be jail terms for this.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/paul-rieckhoff/a-letter-from-ramadii-_b_11050.html
Folks, this must be it. We have to get out of Iraq now, if the Iraqis are calling for it. That would be so GREAT!!! It may happen. I don't know what Iraq will have in it's future, but I would certainly feel better if it did not us dropping USA-made bombs on any more Iraqis. We've done enough damage, enough killing, torturing and maiming.
Every single democratic senator and congressman should be joining up with Murtha right NOW!
Ira- I know a little about how you feel, because I remember how angry people were at Texas when that happened. I remember one of the things that I was thinking about that night when I was looking out my window was that I hoped it didn't turn out to be a Southerner who shot JFK, because everyone would blame it on us and things would just get worse than they'd ever been.
It was a relief in a way that it turned out to be a loner with Communist connections that did it instead of a racial thing. But Texas still got a bad rap after Kennedy's death.
I remember, too, when there was hardly a Republican Senator in the whole South. It's hard to imagine how much that's changed, but I guess Reagan had a lot to do with it.
We're lucky to have had JFK to inspire us though. Even though I wasn't a real part of it, it was my generation that stopped the Vietnam war, and that wrote and sang about half the songs about peace that are still being sung today.
I don't think the anti-war movement would have ever formed without him and his brother- they made people think that taking to the streets could bring change- that regular Americans could and should influence their government by their actions.
I sometimes really feel sorry for the generations that have come behind us. They've had no one of his ilk to speak to them in the way he did.
Kennedy is our FDR. Our children don't have anyone like that to remember, and it's really sad.
"I sometimes really feel sorry for the generations that have come behind us. They've had no one of his ilk to speak to them in the way he did.
Kennedy is our FDR. Our children don't have anyone like that to remember, and it's really sad."
so very true. and it is that passion that is so very very hard to get across to the y generation and explain what is missing today.to many under 30 years old they think that the Bush lies and presidency is the norm and not a historical anomoly.
many of us had forgotten about this outrage at a Denver fundraiser.
ACLU sues volunteers for event with Bush
By JON SARCHE, Associated Press Writer
Last Updated 6:09 am PST Tuesday, November 22, 2005
DENVER (AP) - The American Civil Liberties Union on Monday sued volunteers for an event with President Bush, saying they violated the civil rights of two people who were tossed out because of their political views.
Leslie Weise, 40, and Alex Young, 26, were escorted from the March 21 event after they arrived in a car with a bumper sticker reading "No more blood for oil," and wearing T-shirts saying "Stop the lies" under other clothes, the federal lawsuit said.
The suit names as defendants Michael Casper, Jay Bob Klinkerman and five unknown people who the ACLU says contributed to the decision to remove the pair.
"Hopefully we can identify people who helped shape the policy and helped carry it out," said volunteer ACLU attorney Martha Tierney.
Weise and Young thought Casper was a Secret Service agent because he wore a radio earpiece and a dark suit. Casper did not return calls to The Associated Press.
Klinkerman, the head of the Colorado Federation of Young Republicans, did not have a listed phone number and did not return an e-mail message requesting comment.
Young and Weise were ejected before the president arrived to promote his proposal to revamp Social Security.
The suit seeks unspecified damages.
WORLD VIEWS: Bush offends China; French riots catalyze the Right; Pinochet 'forgets' the past
Edward M. Gomez, special to SF Gate
Tuesday, November 22, 2005
Politically, economically and, increasingly, militarily, China is huge news. It's the world's manufacturing plant and a potentially vast market for other countries' goods. Still, for all the Bush team's usual made-for-the-cameras moments -- Bush cycling with Chinese athletes, Bush attending a church service in Beijing -- the president came home from his eight-day East Asia tour with no breakthroughs to boast of.
In fact, he may even have alienated his hosts. In a speech delivered in Kyoto, Japan, just before arriving in China, Bush said: "We encourage China to continue down the road of reform and openness. ... By meeting the legitimate demands of its citizens for freedom and openness, China's leaders can help their country grow into a modern, prosperous, and confident nation." The American leader then lauded Taiwan -- which Beijing regards as a renegade province of mainland China -- for "embracing freedom at all levels," delivering "prosperity to its people" and creating "a free and democratic Chinese society." (China Post, Taiwan)
"Almost immediately," however, according to India's Statesman, Bush's "unwarranted prescription on governance and [his] flattering reference to Taiwan ... had Beijing's dander up. ... The leader of any other democracy may well have got[ten] away with such criticism of China, well-founded ... as it is. But it is indicative of the drop in stature of the American presidency under Bush that the remarks [were] deemed unacceptable."
News of the U.S. president's speech in Japan "was suppressed in Chinese-language reports in the Communist Party-controlled domestic media." (Sydney Morning Herald)
Normally, an American leader's foreign hosts might at least wait until after he departs before issuing statements that publicly argue with or refute what he says in speeches or press conferences.
In Beijing, though, officials may have felt more at liberty to deliver the kind of "devastating snub" that Bush "had never quite anticipated" in response to his remarks about China because he didn't display much reserve in a part of the world where nuance, humility and respect, however forced or mannered, can speak volumes.
"A man whom the world calls a war-monger ought to have gone on the defensive after the latest revelations on Iraq. Instead, unabashed as ever, [Bush was] exceedingly anxious to spread democracy around the world" and "in the process ... incurred the wrath of another superpower for unwarranted meddling in its internal affairs." (Statesman)
In a gesture that was calculated "to resonate with his religious constituency back home" but did not "cut much ice with his hosts, who continued their crackdown on underground Christians right up to the eve of [Bush's] visit," the U.S. leader made a point of attending a Christian church service in Beijing, where a choir "treated the Bushes to a chorus of 'Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee' in Chinese." (Sydney Morning Herald)
"A healthy society is one that gives people a chance to express themselves through worship of the Almighty," Bush declared. (Financial Times)
For his part, Chinese President Hu Jintao reacted to his American counterpart's repeated calls for "China to expand religious, political and social freedom" by stating: "China will continue to build up democracy with its own characteristics and improve its people's human rights based on the actual situation and the aspirations of the people." (Hindu)
Whether it was human rights, religious freedom, trade issues or Washington's concern about what it views as China's undervalued currency, the president and his team's efforts "to press America's case ... appeared to fall flat" during the China visit. (Financial Times)
In China, some Asian observers noted, "Bush ha[d] been shown his place." (Deutsche Welle)
India's Statesman asked, Was Bush "trying to divert attention of the Asia-Pacific bloc from the latest mess in the backyard of the State Department and the Pentagon?" The Indian daily wondered: "As scandal piles on scandal in the aftermath of the Iraq war, [now] comes the report that 200 starving and tortured inmates were found in a secret prison in Baghdad. Still more chilling must be the exposure that the U.S. military used white phosphorus shells during the battle of Fallujah."
Furthermore, even as Republicans back in Washington were busy trying to extend the privacy-busting power of the Patriot Act, which severely limits Americans' civil liberties (Deutsche Welle), Bush was calling for democratic reform in China. The Statesman scoffed that for Bush to "talk of freedom and rights in some other country [was] sanctimonious humbug."
link: http://sfgate.com/columnists/worldviews/
http://www.andrewsullivan.com/
QUOTE OF THE DAY II: "I have never seen a Party so full of shit when it comes to supporting the military. They fight wars on the cheap and get people killed unnecessarily, instead of fighting with everything we’ve got under a coherant and cohesive strategy that ensures military victory. They let domestic politics trump military necessity, preferring to lie and shift the blame rather than address the problems and solve them like real men. They care about image rather than substance, empty rhetoric instead of courage, mediocrity instead of excellence, and machiavellian maneuvering instead of strong moral character. They have demonstrated nothing but contempt for us and for those that have served honorably in the past. They play us for suckers and weep crocodile tears at our deaths as their stock values rise. They are strangers to integrity and completely bereft of the basic values that we hold dear. They are without honor. They can go to hell.
If this is what Republicans mean by 'supporting the troops,' then they can by all means support the insurgents. We'd have a free and democratic Iraq by the end of the year." - blogger "Stryker," on the blog, "Digital Warfighter." (By the way, this is the same guy who used to blog on the SgtStryker military blog. He was strongly pro-war. He's just become enraged by the way it has been conducted.)
Posted by: dwahzon at November 22, 2005 11:59 AM
That REALLY changes every comment on the war even those made LAST week!
The Iraqi are "wanting to control their own country" So let US be gone!
"A man may die, nations may rise and fall, but an IDEA lives on." ~JFK
JFK was the vision that he stood for. And that vision lives on in us.
"The American leader then lauded Taiwan -- which Beijing regards as a renegade province of mainland China -- for "embracing freedom at all levels," delivering "prosperity to its people" and creating "a free and democratic Chinese society." (China Post, Taiwan) "
I travel to China every 3 months for 3-4 weeks at a time.
The error in what bush said is China has some of the most progressive health care and social programs on earth today. There are hospitals and medical research centers that would make the Mayo clinic weep with envy. Health care is a main section of China's social progress plan.
Employment programs, business incentives, Tax holidays, reduced business costs, there are myriad programs for businesses to enter China to generate employment.
The most capitalist people i have met in the last decade are within the Peoples party and elected government in China. They have progressive social and business plans that extend 50 -75 years, not the 3 month quarterly results America is obsessed with. They are planning the creation of a middle class in china outnumbering the populations of Europe and America combined.
The problem with Bush's statement is the Sheer Ignorance of his Administration not understanding the magnitude of change within China at this time. Terrible advance work and naive approach to foreign policy.
Note to the DNC: Don’t Tread on N.H.
The DNC is treading on dangerous ground with their desire to change the NH Primary status. Thomas Oliphant, who knows and understands N.H. politics, makes the most succinct argument about why it should not be changed in the last lines of his recent OP/ED:
Everybody can join an argument about what system would be ideal in a noisy democracy, but the latest fight about New Hampshire (the only red state to turn blue last time) ignores the continuing truth about its primary: It works and should be left alone.
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2005/11/22/dont_tread_on_nh/
Don’t change if because isn’t broken. Simple logic.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I'm going to write the DNC to tell them this. We don't need to change NH. Please, join me!
http://dnc.org/page/s/contact
Toolmaker... if I may be so bold as to embellish your statement...
The problem with Bush's entire presidency is the Sheer Ignorance of his Administration not understanding the magnitude of ANYTHING. Terrible advance work and naive approach to EVERYTHING, except for that which benefits them finacially.
FROM TPM:
(November 21, 2005 -- 11:46 PM EST // link)
Jean Schmidt-Piece O' Work Watch, Installment #1.
Jean Schmidt's excuse for disparaging Rep. John Murtha (D-PA) as a coward on the House floor is apparently that she didn't know he was a Marine.
I'm not sure I knew that Murtha was a Marine. In fact, though I certainly knew who Murtha is, I'm not sure I'd ever given it a lot of thought. But since Washington had been plastered with a day or so's worth of wall-to-wall coverage which mainly boiled down to "Murtha, Marine, Wants out of Iraq" she's obviously a pretty big fibber or a pretty big fool.
Actually, scratch that -- probably both since she was probably fibbing but still also a fool for coming up with such a moronic excuse.
Add to this the fact that the night before Schmidt had a starring role in the official House GOP game of Whack-a-Murtha, the trancript of which is here. So Schmidt is dug in so deep on this one her head is barely peering up over the ground.
But there's more, as you know doubt knew there would be.
According to tomorrow's Times ...
a spokeswoman for the colonel, Danny R. Bubp, said Ms. Schmidt had misconstrued their conversation.
"While Mr. Bubp, a Republican member of the Ohio House of Representatives, opposes a quick withdrawal for forces, "he did not mention Congressman Murtha by name nor did he mean to disparage Congressman Murtha," said Karen Tabor, his spokeswoman. "He feels as though the words that Congresswoman Schmidt chose did not represent their conversation."
Now, as the old saw goes, no honor among 'wingnuts (okay, so I'm paraphrasing). And as Max Blumenthal shows in this piece, Bubp's quite a piece of work himself. So he's probably full of it too. Still, even if he's full of it, it's sort of nice to see him selling her out.
And just to finish off, here's the last graf of that Times piece ...
Asked to respond on Monday, the congresswoman's office said only, "Mrs. Schmidt's statement was never meant to disparage Congressman Murtha."
Here's what she said ...
"Yesterday I stood at Arlington National Cemetery attending the funeral of a young marine in my district. He believed in what we were doing is the right thing and had the courage to lay his life on the line to do it. A few minutes ago I received a call from Colonel Danny Bubp, Ohio Representative from the 88th district in the House of Representatives. He asked me to send Congress a message: Stay the course. He also asked me to send Congressman Murtha a message, that cowards cut and run, Marines never do. Danny and the rest of America and the world want the assurance from this body – that we will see this through."
Do her constituents really want to keep her in the job?
I can honestly say JFK is the one man I have heard described as all things.
A liar a truth teller
Kind.. formidable.
A dreamer, a realist.
A victim an aggressor.
Mafia, for the people
A lover, a fighter.
A father, a man with nothing to loose.
A bastard. A profile in courage.
it is too damn bad that history was never given a chance to define him. We will always be left with what could have been.
Christy- history may have never been given a chance to define him, but he really needs no definition for those of us who lived through those times.
Yes, he was probably all of the above, but we did not know all that at the time. The news media was kinder to the private lives of presidents back then, so we were allowed to have heroes.
JFK is consistantly listed among the greatest 3 or 4 presidents of all time. FDR, Lincoln, Washington, Jerrerson, JFK. Those are all on the list. Not many other presidents make it. And by the way, Reagan does NOT belong on that list, even though I voted for him twice. History will judge Reagan as a very popular president, not much else. He faced no real crisis in his administration, and the cold war was won by all the presidents who came before him.
JFK's intelligence and savvy saved mankind in 1962. To anyone who doubts it, go out and rent a DVD of 13 days.
And there were back room deals done then too, But without them, I wouldn't be here. Neither would anyone else on the blog.
Because the mushroom clouds would have only left the cockroaches to inhabit the earth by the end of 1962. No one who was alive at that time doubts that.
I don't that anyone can say that about another single individual in history.
So his place is pretty well defined as far as I'm concerned.
He should be on Mt Rushmore. But maybe only us old enough to remember can understand that.
He should be on Mt Rushmore. But maybe only us old enough to remember can understand that.
Posted by: Linda Enterkin at November 22, 2005 01:54 PM
No, I certainly understand. JFK is my hero (his brothers, too) and I was born after his death.
Do not ever equate age with understanding.
It is a false meter
Posted by: Fe at November 22, 2005 01:28 PM
It's not only what she said, it's how she said it.
No getting around it, it was ugly. Seems she was in on a planned attack on Murtha, but she is left holding the bag as others sell her out and "cut and run" from her and 'the position' like Cowards always do.
And I have written something up for all of yall who think of me as a conspiracy theorist...
hehehe
The Mother of All Conspiracy Theories...
In the last 5 or so years of our recent history, many monumental acts have made these times perhaps the most dangerous ever faced by anyone. Ever. I think almost all of us agree that we have been shown exactly what they wanted us to see.
THEY = the elite of the world. The power brokers. The masters of illusion and distraction.
In a world of conspiracies, many of our worst fears are being systematically proved true. Everything bleeds into everything else and it all becomes 'complicated'. There are many unanswered questions. Unresolved issues are causing death every damn day. We loose the forests for the trees.
But, what if ALL of it, and I mean ALL of it, were about just one thing?
What if that one subject were so large and deadly that say, terror, war, theft, were all a distraction to keep idle hands busy and the entire common population of the earth unaware of what was happening? Is there something THEY KNOW that WE do not?
Of course there is.
There is one set of numbers they do not dare share with us. What it means was predicted long ago. And it is even now coming to pass. They have done all they could to make us believe it did not matter.
Ancient tribes in South America wrote many strange things, and left us much to speculate over. One prediction they made is of the end of the world. They described it as North will become South, and South will become North. Perhaps they calculated it. Perhaps it was seen in a vision.
However they came to that conclusion, planetologists today know exactly what this means and how it will happen. It is already happening.
It is not a matter of if, but when. It is a mathematical certainty that it WILL happen. North will become South, and South will become North.
And all the peoples of the entire earth are in terrible danger.
Here is how it works. Both axis ends of our planet are covered in ice. Entire continents of ice. Anyone who has ever drank a glass of iced tea knows why this is a problem. Ice is buoyant.
Our earth rotates on buoyant axis. If say the Northern ice cap melts, the weight distribution of the earth will be seriously affected.
The huge buoyancy of our southern ice cap will throw the earth into a wild, cosmic spin, as the ice seeks a gravitational 'up'. North will become south and south will be north. The waters of all oceans will meet and recede; entire populations will be washed away. I have heard it said that it could flip 100% in less than one month. Once the flip begins, there will be no way to stop it.
There will be warnings of course.
There will be earthquakes, tsunamis. Maniacal hurricanes, and tornados that will come out of season. Once the ice shelves crack, all we know will change.
No country or continent as we know them now will exist. Time itself will warp. It is a mathematical certainty. Not if, but when.
What if that when is within the next hundred or so years? The next 50? Who would know such things?
If they can calculate the tilt they can calculate WHEN this tipping point would be reached.
What if the elite of this nation, or any others for that matter, knew that month of tilting was coming, and very soon..? Would they bother to tell us about it?
Or would they distract us by any means possible?
The environmental data coming out now is terribly frightening. Even more terrifying is knowing that they are not telling us all of it. Even as recently as the past few months, we know the USA and Britain have placed bizarre restrictions on their national weather forecasting.
It would be futile to pretend those that rule have no information on the mathematical certainty of the end of the world as it now exists. It is pointless to act as if we are working off of the same data they are.
They would know because they are in the positions of power to know. Iraq is a good example of how often we are not told everything about matters of life and death.
But, you say, the elite are also then in the same boat as the rest of us if the world starts tilting. Yes, in that you would be correct. Many will die, from all classes, races, and age groups. Not even the elite can stop the earth from flipping, which is true.
However, they can barter themselves much, much better odds than the rest of us can. Especially if they know it is coming. With their personal fortunes they can prepare for a world that will wash away every step of our evolution thus far. The data being actively withheld from us is being held back for a reason.
Who wants to rape and poison the earth? Why not? We all knew it could not last. Some knew that better than others.
Some among us have done all they can to hide, skew, and even flat out rename what is happening so that it even seemed less likely. The ones who did this, were in the position to know what a horrific threat is melting into our lives. Yet instead of trying to correct it, or come clean with the info, what have we seen instead?
We saw EXACTLY what they wanted us too see.
We saw terror, we saw war. We saw the lies and the death it brought. We sit on an unstable earth and argue about how the deck chairs are placed. We kill people for catchphrases like 'Victory' and 'Freedom', even as the oddest storms you can imagine are being constantly unleashed by Mother Nature herself.
The conversation has been deliberately manipulated, marginalized, or even simply dismissed by those that would rather we look at a shiny new war instead. We KNOW they KNOW better. Yet they bring us death and lies and more death and never quite do anything they promised.
I heard someone say once, 'In the future, wars will be fought for clean water sources.'
That future is much closer than we think it is. Katrina and the New Orleans that resulted from it is proof Nature will take from us what she will whenever she has certain mathematical conditions met. And she can do it in the blink of an eye.
New Orleans also proved one other thing. No matter what, any surviving societies that are hit, as they were, without rescue or hope, all social and civilized order will completely break down in about 4 days. When the earth starts tilting, there will be no rescues.
There will be no hope.
Entire coastlines of every country on earth will be the first to go. Valleys and plains will flood and mountain ranges will both collapse and rise in a matter of hours. Ancient volcanos will burst wide open and do EXACTLY as God made them to do. They will clense the earth by fire. Not rain, nor snow, nor the oceans will stop them. They will destroy the earth, to create a new one. Where north will be south, and south will be north.
If you survive until the waters settle, the toxic fall out of the volcanos will smother you with every breath. And almost all water on earth will be poisioned by an acidic mix.
If this happens in 50 years, I will be 80 years old. My granchildren though, will be in their prime. They will be raised in a world of natural weather phenomena unlike mankind as we know it has ever seen. The day an ice shelf mortally fractures, that is the day to make SURE your children understand, and on that night Mankind himself should bow as one and make himself right with a merciful God.
Not everyone will be bowing though. Some among us, would have already anticipated that day. They would have used enourmous resources to have the best calculations of a safe place to shelter their families, and their boundless treasure. See there is another certainty that can not be measured mathmatically, but by the human spirit. That factor is the motive for saying 'climate change' instead of 'Global Warming'. It is the reason the preparation must take place.
No matter what nature throws at us, SOME OF US will survive. Many, many, will die, but some, will live. Perhaps that is indeed truely how we are favored by God, Himself. We can bear the brunt of Mother Nature herself and still we find a way to survive. We are the only animal on the planet that can anticipate Nature and time.
As surely as the tilt can be mathmatically calculated, so can it's survival. Those who have access to those numbers will almost definately survive, and with all the money, gold, art, food, water, or other things we would find precious enough to barter our starving children for.
In other words, even among survivors, there still must be an elite. And the less the masses know, the safer is their preparations.
The less the masses understand, the safer is the clean water supply/storage they have quietly been collecting.
What if I am wrong and it takes 200 years to happen? What if I am also wrong and it will happen in 20? Or 10?
That data is being held up due to politics. It is all just complicated they say. Yes, they with the most to loose would find it complicated indeed.
Among those who would know these things... who do YOU think they would tell? After all we have seen in the last years, we can conclude morality will not be a factor in survival. Those that make life and death descisions have shown niether mercy nor shame. If a new world is to be born it is they whom will birth it. They are the makers of war, the keepers of science, the writers of history and the number counters. And they are deliberately avoiding the words 'Global Warming' with a confusing ferocity.
Confusing until you look at what IS getting out and you realize the biblical scale of it.
The cradle of civilization itself will be born anew on a newly formed continant. Technology, and history will be lost to all but a select few.
New empirical, pharonic, and monarchial bloodlines will rise to claim a new world order. Bloodlines must be positioned 100 years in advance to maintain their welth, their power, long into the future. We may not have 100 years left.
Slavery is as inevitable as the tilt. And all slaves need a master.
Those that own what is left of history will have a clean slate to rewrite the very existance of mankind. They will re-make man in their own image.
These are no longer storms that may or may not gather. These will be the issues that will define the next 50 years of our lives. While we have been distracted by our own image, everything we know and love has melted at our feet.
By the time we think to ask any questions, it will be too late.
It is probably already too late.
Truth:
As often is the case with cowards. You should check Huffpo on what Max Blumenthal said about the purported Marine that Schmidt quoted. He's another piece of work. HINT (A Swiftboat kind of guy...)
on another front, this is from THE HILL. Looks like the sides are splitting over the war. Turnabout is a ***ch, isn't it?
http://thehill.com/thehill/export/TheHill/News/Frontpage/112205/news3.html
Dems win McCain’s backing
By Alexander Bolton
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), who has emerged as a leading opponent of the Bush administration’s policy on interrogating detainees in the war on terrorism, wants Senate investigators to interview senior administration officials about their statements regarding the threat posed by Saddam Hussein before the war.
McCain backed Democratic calls for interviews of top-level administration officials in an interview last week. But his position is at odds with many in his party, including Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kan.), chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, and Sen. George Allen (R-Va.), whom McCain may face in the 2008 GOP presidential primary.
Lawmakers facing a difficult reelection in 2006 and have an eye on the 2008 presidential election seem torn between McCain and their party line. Sen. Mike DeWine (R-Ohio), a centrist Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee who is one of the chamber’s most vulnerable incumbents, said he would reserve judgment on whether senior administration officials should testify before the intelligence panel. Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.), who is also expected to run for president in 2008, noted that Roberts is his home-state colleague and deferred comment until he learned more about the matter.
McCain, who is a senior member of the Armed Services Committee but does not sit on the intelligence panel, said the interviews could give senators and the public a way to evaluate the officials’ statements, but he also said he recognizes boundaries protecting the president and vice president.
“In general, I think everyone should be interviewed that was involved,” he said. “The president of the United States and the vice president of the United States have a special status, and you’ve got to be concerned about the executive-congressional relationship.”
“I think certainly Cabinet secretaries who are confirmable by the Senate should be interviewed,” he said, acknowledging that he is not intimately familiar with the mechanics of the Senate probe. McCain said that the former national-security adviser should also be exempted from Senate interviews because of the sensitivity of that official’s communications with the president.
McCain’s parameters appear to include Douglas Feith, the former undersecretary of defense who played an important role in the months before the war in analyzing Iraqi intelligence for the White House. Democrats have accused Feith of overstepping legal boundaries and want to interview him about his activities.
So far at least one other Republican, Sen. Lincoln Chafee (R-R.I.), who is also facing a difficult race next year, is siding with McCain.
“Why not come in and defend what you say?” said Chafee. “I agree with McCain.”
Senate Democrats have called for an evaluation of pre-invasion statements about the threat posed by Iraq’s weapons capabilities by President Bush, Vice President Cheney, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, then-Secretary of State Colin Powell, then-Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz and then-National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice.
Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.), the vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, is pressing for some of those officials to be interviewed as part of that evaluation process and has argued that a thorough report cannot be written without interviews, but Republicans have so far resisted.
Roberts said it is too early to decide whether or not to interview senior administration officials about their statements. He said that those decisions should be made after the committee completes its report on prewar intelligence, known as phase two of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence’s investigation into pre-war intelligence.
“That would be premature until we get the report done,” he said.
Roberts has also said that he doesn’t want to subpoena or investigate Feith until the Department of Defense inspector general has finished a review of Feith’s work.
Republican strategists fear the prospect of Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz trying to justify statements they made about the Iraqi threat using hazy intelligence. Democrats recognize this and have stepped up their efforts in recent weeks to spur action on the Senate Intelligence Committee’s plodding investigation. Earlier this month, Democrats forced the Senate into closed-session to pressure Republicans to speed up the pace of the probe.
Lack of agreement between Republicans and Democrats over the interviews is one of the main hurdles to completing the probe. Three Democrats on the Intelligence Committee highlighted the issue in a letter to Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) and Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) last week.
In recent weeks, Democrats have tried to focus media and public attention on the prewar statements of Bush administration officials as polls have shown waning public support for the war.
Senate Republicans have tried to remind the public about statements Democrats made at the time about the threat posed by Hussein.
Frist distributed a memo during a closed-door luncheon meeting of the Republican conference last week urging Republicans to counter the Democrats’ attack.
“Democrats are claiming the Bush administration manipulated and “cherry-picked” intelligence before commencing military operations in Iraq,” he wrote. “By making such claims, they are waging a public-relations campaign of mass deception.”
I was in Current Events class when we heard a rap on our classroom door. Our teacher stepped out of the room for a moment, then came back in and looked shocked and astonished!!
With a look of disbelief, he said ~ "The President's been shot."
A bit later, another rap on the door. He left for a moment, came back and said "The President is dead. They have shot and killed our President." He had been crying.
School was dismissed a few minutes after that, and we all went home to watch history being made on national television. Every family I knew was sitting glued to their t.v. watching the events unfold. I remember seeing the film footage of Jacqueline Kennedy in shock with blood all over the front of her lovely suit. We all watched as she took her children one night when unable to sleep, to the rotunda and kissed him goodbye, one more time. I remember her courage as she led the entourage on foot the day of his funeral.
We all watched aghast as Ruby shot Oswald on live t.v.
I don't think any of us really were the same after that.
If you weren't alive then, words cannot describe the charisma Jack Kennedy had. It really was "Camelot". It was magical. Along with the charisma he and his wife had, came a spark of hope. We knew we weren't being led by just some ordinary man. We knew it in our gut.
This nation took it's grief and struggled as it walked forward to bring a light of hope again.
To see these b@st@rds cheapen all who went before them only to bring this country to the brink of disaster the way they have in the past 5 years only brings out the fight in me.
We shall overcome. We will be heroes, and we shall see heroes.
Just hang in and hang on.
My favorite quote about Kennedy..
It was in refrence to all the masses of everything from movie stars to scientists to kings and heros...
they said.. "There has not been that much talent in the White House since Jefferson dined alone."
I have no idea where I remember it from, I was a little kid.. But the quote made me look up Jefferson at the library the next day.
IT'S VERY INTERESTING TO WATCH THE DEFECTIONS AND THE CONSOLIDATIONS GOING ACROSS PARTY LINES. ALSO INTERESTING TO WATCH WHERE THE COWARDS ARE HUDDLING:
Cheney to raise funds for DeLay
President Bush offered an "olive branch" to Iraq war critic Rep. John
Murtha on Sunday.
http://www.cnn.com/2005/POLITICS/11/21/sr.mon/index.html?section=cnn_latest
From Mark Preston, CNN Political Unit
The White House is not distancing itself from embattled former U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas), who is facing charges of breaking state campaign finance law.
Vice President Cheney is scheduled to appear at a December 5, Houston fundraiser on DeLay's behalf. Donors are being asked to contribute at least $500, according to an e-mail sent by the Fort Bend (Texas) Republican Party. Shannon Flaherty, DeLay's spokeswoman, confirmed details of the fundraiser.
"For five years, Congressman DeLay has served as a key ally to pass the White House's agenda through Congress, and Ronnie Earle's political sideshow isn't going to get in the way of the real business at hand," said Flaherty. "This event shows the Democrat strategy of avenging their ballot box losses with smear tactics and lawsuits is not going to work -- Republicans stick by their friends and don't back down from a fight."
DeLay was forced to step down from his leadership position in late September after Earle, the Travis County (Texas) district attorney, charged him with illegally directing corporate donations to Texas candidates. DeLay has asked that his trial be moved from Travis to Fort Bend County.
As of September 30, 2005, DeLay had $1.164 million in his warchest. Former Rep. Nick Lampson (D-Texas) is challenging DeLay for his seat. ++
MORE WEASELS:
Threat of federal charges against DeLay grows
Holly Yeager and Stephanie Kirchgaessner in Washington
November 22 2005
http://news.ft.com/cms/s/54766a12-5aeb-11da-8628-0000779e2340.html
The likelihood of federal charges against members of Congress intensified on Monday when a key player in a broad corruption probe pleaded guilty to conspiracy and agreed to co-operate with investigators.
Under a plea agreement with the Department of Justice, Michael Scanlon, a former aide to Tom DeLay, the powerful Texas congressman, admitted that he had conspired to defraud four Native American Indian tribes that operated or hoped to operate casinos.
He faces up to five years in prison and agreed to pay nearly $20m in restitution. Mr Scanlon, who operated a grassroots public relations firm, admitted that he and an unnamed lobbyist conspired to charge the tribes high fees and split the profits.
Mr Scanlon and Jack Abramoff, a Republican with close ties to Mr. DeLay, earned more than $80m from Indian tribes from 2001-2004. Those transactions are being examined by the Senate Indian affairs committee, and by federal investigators.
Mr Abramoff has been indicted in Florida on fraud and conspiracy charges involving gambling boats.
Court papers in Mr Scanlon's case also allege that a congressman received campaign contributions and valuable gifts, including a trip to Scotland to play golf, in exchange for official acts to benefit clients of Mr Scanlon and Mr Abramoff.
The case against Mr Scanlon is being led by the department's Public Integrity office, a division that oversees the prosecution of elected and appointed public officials.
Most prosecutions by the DoJ involve large-scale fraud or corruption and hinge on the co-operation of relatively minor players who agree to plea bargains, and to testify against others, in return for more lenient sentencing.
The action by the DoJ potentially represents a serious threat to several lawmakers.
Although Mr DeLay's earlier indictment on unrelated money laundering charges forced him to give up his seat as majority leader in the House of Representatives, it is unclear how strong the case against the Texas Republican is.
Mr DeLay and his supporters have accused Travis County district attorney Ronnie Earle, a Democrat, of being on a political witchhunt.
It would be more difficult for Mr DeLay or other Republicans to make such claims about federal prosecutors. ++
This is what I do not get about Fitz..
Chalibi comes to town... Libbys turning leaves with miller... woodward coming and going from the WH like he owns it...
WHY are all these people allowed to keep meeting publicly? They are getting their stories straight and I am not sure even meeting with each other is LEGAL if he has serveral of them under investigation.
Apparently sitting around trying to plan a WAR CRIME is not an arrestable offense..
BUT you WILL be arrested for trying to blow the whistle on it.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051122/ap_on_re_eu/britain_iraq
Posted by: Fe at November 22, 2005 02:41 PM
I just read Max Blumenthal's piece at HuffPo.
"A quick glance at Bubp's background reveals him to be a low-level right-wing operative who has spent more time engaged in symbolic Christian right crusades than he has battling terrorist evil-doers."
The key words in that statement are "symbolic Christian right crusades".
No doubt of the ilk of Grassfire.org and Steve Elliott, the VERY SYMBOLIC organization that is actually the front for the P.R. firm ~ Shirley and Bannister Public Affairs (of Willie Horton fame). They are the "conscientous wing-nut grassroots organization looking out for the religious right", don't cha know. Gee, they even know Karl Rove!!!
They systematically send emails inciting the religious right over the stupid two wedge issues we all know and never love.
Yes, Fe, a Swiftboat kind of guy indeed.
Lookee here:
Grassfire clearly aligns itself with President George W. Bush and the Bush administration agenda. Grassfire promotes its agenda via TV and radio ads and news releases, which are also available on its web site. The organization's web site promotes its anti-John Kerry (a.k.a. Edward M. Kennedy) stance, depicting them as "Massachusetts liberals" and asks internet guests to "Support President Bush against MoveOn.org's Outrageous attacks." [3] (http://www.grassfire.org/)
[edit]Public relations for grassfire.org
Despite its purported 'grassroots' nature, public relations work for the organization is being done by Shirley & Banister Public Affairs (SBPA), a highly connected and long-established public relations firm [4] (http://www.abcnews.go.com/sections/politics/TheNote/TheNote_Dec11.html). The president of SBPA, Craig Shirley, was involved in the production of the infamous Willie Horton advertisement in 1988 [5] (http://www.salon.com/opinion/conason/2004/03/09/conspiracy/).
[edit]History of grassfire.org
According to Public Citizen's Stealth PACs website, "Grassfire began a campaign of pro-Bush and anti-Kerry ads in late 2003. Grassfire's first ad, in December 2003, chronicled torture of Iraqi people at the hands of Saddam Hussein, and asked viewers to tell Congress and the media that they support President Bush. The second criticized the pro-Democratic organization MoveOn.org, and urged viewers to show groups like MoveOn.org that "right-minded Americans" support the president. The third ad castigated John Kerry for voting against military spending, supporting gay rights, and opposing both tax cuts and the balanced budget amendment." [6] (http://www.stealthpacs.org/profile.cfm?Org_ID=2612)
ABCNews.com noted the launch of a new ad from the organization in December 2003 as follows: "Those nice folks over at (Craig) Shirley & (Diana) Banister Public Affairs have let us know of a new ad from an organization called Grassfire.org, touted as a "conservative online political activist group" aimed to counter the power of the "radical Left" and Moveon.org. You can see the ad supporting the president's actions in Iraq here. We are told we should expect to hear more from Grassfire.org and its president, Steve Elliott, later this cycle." [7] (http://www.abcnews.go.com/sections/politics/TheNote/TheNote_Dec11.html)
more..... http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Grassfire.org_Alliance
Oh, what's that they say? No "planned" attack on Rep. Murtha?
Pardon me while I laugh? (HA hahaha.) I am enjoying this one!
Fe:
SNL picture of Schmidt (stand in)
hilarious!!
http://news.cincinnati.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051122/NEWS01/511220352
~ (I just HAD to repost)
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
http://patriotboy.blogspot.com/
For a lovely pic of Rep. Jean Schmidt
http://webpages.charter.net/micah/jeans.jpg
Truth and mkh:
I take back the statement I made on a previous thread that Schmidt's outfit looked like "a collision between a gym outfit and a 4th of July napkin set."
I say instead that it looks like a CAR CRASH between a 4th of July napkin set and a cheerleader's outfit.
...and we could have had Hackett instead?
sigh
Ed Schultz just reported, "McCain wants to protect the Vice President even after their disagreement on torture. McCain wants to investigate but not have full disclosure. McCain is a waffler."
Truth:
Got that e-mail by the way, but my webmail server would crash whenever I tried to reply. So its here I say thanks, and will check it out...
Oh, what's that they say? No "planned" attack on Rep. Murtha?
Pardon me while I laugh? (HA hahaha.) I am enjoying this one!
Posted by: Truth Shall Prevail at November 22, 2005 03:54 PM
Truth:
Its exactly that kind of ARSENAL the right has in stock that progressives need as much.
Fighting back. Its also a democratic principle.
Hey All,
Carol is the only entrant in the Cheney Contest so far! Her entry is pretty good too--but we know YOU can beat it!
http://www.democracycellproject.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=963&pid=3743&st=0&#entry3743
Try your luck!
Ok-have to say it-
Delay's trial will be be delayed!!!
snip
Nov. 22 (Bloomberg) -- The Texas judge presiding over the money-laundering trial of U.S. Representative Tom DeLay withheld a decision on a motion to dismiss the charges and said if the trial goes forward, it probably wouldn't be until next year.
That timetable could dash Republican DeLay's hopes of returning to his post as House majority leader, a job he temporarily surrendered after he was indicted in September.
Judge Pat Priest gave no indication when he will rule on the motion by DeLay's lawyer, Dick DeGuerin, to dismiss the charges.
``Last night, I thought it would be easy to come in and make a ruling today,'' Priest said in Travis County District Court in Austin, Texas, with DeLay present. ``But after hearing the arguments, I don't think it will be an easy decision.''
``I doubt we will get this case to trial before the first of the year,'' Priest said.
snipUntil he rules on the motion to dismiss the charges, Priest said he wouldn't hear arguments on another motion by DeLay, this one to move the trial from Democratic-leaning Austin to the lawmaker's home county of Fort Bend.
Gee...can't return to power broker, has to continue to pay big bucks to lawyers....maybe with all the trials we can bankrupt the wingnuts. Aw, it just passes the money to a bunch of lawyers who are probably wingnuts themselves.
Anyways, I think its delightful that poor Tom has to wait while justice grinds slowly....maybe the Feds will solve the problem first.
Christy- I'm not equating age with intelligence or wisdom. I know you're absolutely correct on that. There are a lot of people out there who have lived 80 years and seemingly learned nothing.
All I was saying was that to understand the effect of the fear that was in this country during the Cuban Missle Crisis, well, it can't be learned from a book.
My mom went to the grocery store and stocked up a cabinet in our house with canned goods, and filled water bottles with water. She planned (get this) for us to all live under the dining room table for at least 2 weeks after the bombs dropped, and to put plastic tablecloths over the table in hopes of stopping the radiation. There were 7 of us in our 2 bedroom house, by the way, including an 89 year old grandmother. I know my mother's plan sounds stupid now, but people were making these kind of preparations all over America. WE figured that with living only 35 miles from Eglin AFB, and only 5 miles from at least 3 Naval facilities, we'd be ground zero. Why we even thought we could survive a nuclear blast, I really don't know.As I said before, my dad did consider having a fallout shelter built, but he didn't want to have to fight the neighbors off, and it was really too late to start such a project anyway.The fact that you could actually BUY a fallout shelter in Pensacola Florida in 1961-62 gives something of an idea of how things were back then. A lot of people were filling sandbags, thinking they'd put them on the floors in their houses and around the edges, and live under their houses after the attack. They all knew, though, that when they finally crawled out, there'd be nothing left to eat because everything would be poisoned with radiation. I don't know why any of us bothered to try and prepare at all.
My dad, who worked at the Naval Air Station here, came home one day during that horrible period with some needles in a box to inject himself with when the bombs dropped. He was to inject iodine into his veins to help hold off some of the effects of radiation poisoning. All the workers at NAS had been given these "radiation kits" in hopes of saving their lives, but hadn't been given any supplies for their wives or kids. My mom went out and bought several bottles of iodine, and she and dad agreed that we'd all be injected with the needles daddy had been given if the bombs came.
13 days later, when JFK announced that the missles were going to be removed from Cuba, we worshipped the ground he walked on. It was like being under a death sentence and then getting a parole. It was that kind of emotion. And we loved the man who saved us.We didn't care how many women he'd had affairs with, we didn't care if he had mafia help to be elected, and we certainly didn't give a damn anymore if he was a Catholic from Massachusetts. He became this nation's hero overnight.
We also didn't know all the back room negotiations that led to those missles being moved, and we didn't care. Kennedy had made Kruschev back down- that's all the news told us. And it really was all we needed to know at the time.
When someone saves your life, and then is gunned down just a little over a year later, it's a life changing experience. Nothing bad ever said about JFK after tnat ever mattered to me anymore.
BTW- a couple of years ago, I was in a Sunday School class at a Southern Baptist Church and the subject of presidents came up. My Sunday School teacher, who was a huge James Dobson fan and who thought Reagan walked on water, said that the greatest president he'd ever known in his lifetime was JFK.
It's just that way with my generation. I'm not saying that we're any more mature than generation Y, but this is just a shared experience of my generation that none of us can ever forget.
I think it's an experience that led to a lot of the music of the time ( which I do admit to thinking is superior to any music since then), and it's definitely an experience that led to a lot of the unrest of the late 60's and early 70's. Had Kennedy not been killed that day in November of 1963, the world would be a very different place today.
So, on this day, I always think about him.
He's a giant to me. That's just the way I feel.
yeah yeah
"A new Pew Institute poll helpfully reminds us not to take U.S. public opinion about foreign affairs too seriously. When asked whether certain countries possessed nuclear weapons, nearly a third said that Libya does. More people--55 percent--believe Iran has nuclear weapons than think Great Britain (52 percent) or France (38 percent) does. Only 48 percent got Israel right. And just over one-fifth didn't know or weren't sure about Russia--Russia! Which has some 20,000 nukes. Yeesh."
Obama calls for troop withdrawal 12 minutes ago.
http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/5061
Wow! Suddenly it's not the WMD according to Rummy.
http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/5054
WHOA:
Venezuela to Provide Discount Oil to Mass.
By MARK JEWELL, Associated Press Writer
1 hour, 27 minutes ago
QUINCY, Mass. - Thousands of low-income Massachusetts residents will receive discounted home heating oil this winter under an agreement signed Tuesday with Venezuela, whose government is a political adversary of the Bush administration.
A subsidiary of Venezuela's state-owned oil company will supply oil at 40 percent below market prices. It will be distributed by two nonprofit organizations, Citizens Energy Corp. and the Mass Energy Consumer Alliance.
The agreement gives President Hugo Chavez's government standing as a provider of heating assistance to poor U.S. residents at a time when U.S. oil companies have been reluctant to do so and Congress has failed to expand aid in response to rising oil prices.
U.S. Rep. William Delahunt (news, bio, voting record), D-Mass., met with Chavez in August and helped broker the deal. He said his constituents' needs for heating assistance trump any political points the Chavez administration can score.
"This is a humanitarian gesture," Delahunt said, speaking after a news conference with Venezuelan officials outside the home of a constituent who will receive heating aid.
Citgo is the Houston-based subsidiary of Venezuela's state-owned oil company and has about 13,500 independently owned U.S. gas stations. It is offering Massachusetts more than 12 million gallons of discounted heating oil over the next four months, starting in December.
The two nonprofit organizations will screen recipients for financial need and cooperate with oil distributors that will make discounted deliveries to qualifying homes and institutions, such as homeless shelters and hospitals.
Chavez proposed offering fuel directly to poor U.S. communities during a visit to Cuba in August. He has said the aim is to bypass middlemen to reduce costs for the American poor — a group he argues has been severely neglected by Bush's government.
Chavez has become one of Latin America's most vocal critics of U.S.-style capitalism, which he calls a major cause of poverty. U.S. officials accuse Chavez of endangering Venezuelan democracy by assuming ever-greater powers. During a short-lived 2002 coup against Chavez, the U.S. government promptly recognized the new leaders, who were soon driven out amid a popular uprising.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051122/ap_on_re_us/venezuela_us_cheap_fuel
SPEECHLESS:
Key Bush Intelligence Briefing Kept From Hill Panel
By Murray Waas, special to National Journal
© National Journal Group Inc.
Tuesday, Nov. 22, 2005
Ten days after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, President Bush was told in a highly classified briefing that the U.S. intelligence community had no evidence linking the Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein to the attacks and that there was scant credible evidence that Iraq had any significant collaborative ties with Al Qaeda, according to government records and current and former officials with firsthand knowledge of the matter.
The administration has refused to provide the Sept. 21 President's Daily Brief, even on a classified basis, and won't say anything more about it other than to acknowledge that it exists.
The information was provided to Bush on September 21, 2001 during the "President's Daily Brief," a 30- to 45-minute early-morning national security briefing. Information for PDBs has routinely been derived from electronic intercepts, human agents, and reports from foreign intelligence services, as well as more mundane sources such as news reports and public statements by foreign leaders.
One of the more intriguing things that Bush was told during the briefing was that the few credible reports of contacts between Iraq and Al Qaeda involved attempts by Saddam Hussein to monitor the terrorist group. Saddam viewed Al Qaeda as well as other theocratic radical Islamist organizations as a potential threat to his secular regime. At one point, analysts believed, Saddam considered infiltrating the ranks of Al Qaeda with Iraqi nationals or even Iraqi intelligence operatives to learn more about its inner workings, according to records and sources.
The September 21, 2001, briefing was prepared at the request of the president, who was eager in the days following the terrorist attacks to learn all that he could about any possible connection between Iraq and Al Qaeda.
Much of the contents of the September 21 PDB were later incorporated, albeit in a slightly different form, into a lengthier CIA analysis examining not only Al Qaeda's contacts with Iraq, but also Iraq's support for international terrorism. Although the CIA found scant evidence of collaboration between Iraq and Al Qaeda, the agency reported that it had long since established that Iraq had previously supported the notorious Abu Nidal terrorist organization, and had provided tens of millions of dollars and logistical support to Palestinian groups, including payments to the families of Palestinian suicide bombers.
The highly classified CIA assessment was distributed to President Bush, Vice President Cheney, the president's national security adviser and deputy national security adviser, the secretaries and undersecretaries of State and Defense, and various other senior Bush administration policy makers, according to government records.
The Senate Intelligence Committee has asked the White House for the CIA assessment, the PDB of September 21, 2001, and dozens of other PDBs as part of the committee's ongoing investigation into whether the Bush administration misrepresented intelligence information in the run-up to war with Iraq. The Bush administration has refused to turn over these documents.
Indeed, the existence of the September 21 PDB was not disclosed to the Intelligence Committee until the summer of 2004, according to congressional sources. Both Republicans and Democrats requested then that it be turned over. The administration has refused to provide it, even on a classified basis, and won't say anything more about it other than to acknowledge that it exists.
On November 18, Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., said he planned to attach an amendment to the fiscal 2006 intelligence authorization bill that would require the Bush administration to give the Senate and House intelligence committees copies of PDBs for a three-year period. After Democrats and Republicans were unable to agree on language for the amendment, Kennedy said he would delay final action on the matter until Congress returns in December.
The conclusions drawn in the lengthier CIA assessment-which has also been denied to the committee-were strikingly similar to those provided to President Bush in the September 21 PDB, according to records and sources. In the four years since Bush received the briefing, according to highly placed government officials, little evidence has come to light to contradict the CIA's original conclusion that no collaborative relationship existed between Iraq and Al Qaeda.
"What the President was told on September 21," said one former high-level official, "was consistent with everything he has been told since-that the evidence was just not there."
In arguing their case for war with Iraq, the president and vice president said after the September 11 attacks that Al Qaeda and Iraq had significant ties, and they cited the possibility that Iraq might share chemical, biological, or nuclear weapons with Al Qaeda for a terrorist attack against the United States.
Democrats in Congress, as well as other critics of the Bush administration, charge that Bush and Cheney misrepresented and distorted intelligence information to bolster their case for war with Iraq. The president and vice president have insisted that they unknowingly relied on faulty and erroneous intelligence, provided mostly by the CIA.
The new information on the September 21 PDB and the subsequent CIA analysis bears on the question of what the CIA told the president and how the administration used that information as it made its case for war with Iraq.
more...http://nationaljournal.com/about/njweekly/stories/2005/1122nj1.htm
On the John McCain discussion- he was down in Alabama this week to support George Wallace Jr. in his quest to become Governor of Alabama next year.
As far as I'm concerned, that's pretty disgusting.
Linda:
McCain is running for Pres and willing to look like everything to everyone.
Linda and Fe,
McCain would have had moral authority in my book if he hadn't sold his soul to the GOP and cuddled up to Bush during the '04 election.
I used to think it was awful when the Rovian slime machine said he was crazy because of being a prisoner of war in Vietnam. Then he let them use him in the '04 campaign.
People who won't stand up for something stand for nothing.
(He might appeal to moderates, though, and that's what they say again will swing the elections.)
The polls show that the numbers Bush has lost have not come from his "base". He has been losing the mods and indies they say. I think we need to pay attention to that, unfortunately.
Carol,
Your reply to today's contest is very good!
Don't know if I can beat that. I'm thinking about it......
“Democrats are claiming the Bush administration manipulated and “cherry-picked” intelligence before commencing military operations in Iraq.”
“By making such claims, they are waging a public-relations campaign of mass deception.”
- Sen. Bill Frist, Pot Calling Kettle Black Specialist, 3rd Class, 11/22/05
Hey just a point of pride:
I supose we do have our arguments here at the DCP, but I was just checking out some other blogs (including John Edwards's PAC blog) and I would just like to thank the DCP for keeping everything so POSITIVE! We are suportive of eachother and our common goals and values, and when we do lash out we lash out at injustice, not at eachother or other Democrats! You have no idea how much division and frankly HATE there is at some of these other blogs towards fellow bloggers or towards candidates be it Kerry, Clark, Biden... etc.
We should be proud. =)
Truth: considering myself to be a moderate, McCain has lost his appeal to me. I don't think he'll appeal to moderates as much the next election as he has in the past. His obvious sucking up to Bush after Bush isulted him in 2000 has made him seem like just another politician to me.
I have all his books on my shelf, and I consider him a hero for the time he spent in Vietnam, but I won't be buying any more of his writings.
I even changed parties for a month or so back in 2000 to vote for him in the primaries against Bush (but I felt very guilty until I switched back to being a democrat immediately after the primaries were over.) I wouldn't vote for him for any office anymore.
No one can maintain their integrity while sucking up to a someone who has vilified them in the way Bush did to McCain in 2000.
And then, he let Bush kiss him on top of the head on the campaign trail.
That's too much for any moderate to stand.
Goodness! Now color me surprised!
Bolton threatening to break up U.N. and LEAVE the U.N. if they don't do what he wants.
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/112105M.shtml
Something tells me he ain't gonna find too many supporters outside the U.N. in his "International community".
Bolton, like Bush, doesn't seem to realize...it's time to throw in the towel and leave town.
Don't let the door slam you on the butt on the way out!
Posted by: Linda Enterkin at November 22, 2005 08:53 PM
Linda, I hope you are indicitive of many moderates.
If a man can't stick up for himself and cease to support corrupt men now, how then can he as POTUS?
I think he would be torn to shreds if he tries.
Let's hope after all the American people have seen and been through these past 5 years, that they have the smarts to put all this together.
Posted by: Linda Enterkin at November 22, 2005 08:53 PM
And, I think we will have enough on him regarding morals to take him down without slandering him.
He supported Bush after they destroyed his previous run by smearing him. What kind of a moral statement does that make?
Yeah, daddy. You can take care of me ANYTIME.
TSP -
The thesaurus is the key to today's 5 minutes! Kind of fun - kind of icky feeling!
Hear anything about the Katrina death toll lately? Me neither.
Read this:http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2005-11-21-katrina-missing_x.htm
Linda
Yes I bought the Newsweek with the McCain cover story & I'm going to read it, but I too have the image of McCain kissing Bush on the head ingrained in my mind & I can't forget it either.
It's just too wierd.
Linda
I'm reading backwards.
There is a George Wallace Jr.? Oh lord ..
So where is the probe about THIS leak?
This one may actually harm people. Wait, doesn't matter because it probably has no connection to the White House, so I'm sure you don't care.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2005/11/22/international/i115618S67.DTL
Just like trying to find the right door in China, Bush looks for a way out (even when he says he isn't)...
Washington Post: U.S. eyes reducing troops in Iraq by 50,000 towards end of '06
Barring any major surprises in Iraq, the Pentagon tentatively plans to reduce the number of U.S. forces there early next year by as many as three combat brigades, from 18 now, but to keep at least one brigade "on call" in Kuwait in case more troops are needed quickly, several senior military officers tell the WASHINGTON POST for Wednesday editions, RAW STORY has learned. Excerpts.
Pentagon authorities also have set a series of "decision points" during 2006 to consider further force cuts that, under a "moderately optimistic" scenario, would drop the total number of troops from more than 150,000 now to fewer than 100,000, including 10 combat brigades, by the end of the year, the officers said.
Despite an intensified congressional debate about a withdrawal timetable after last week's call by Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., for a quick pullout, administration officials say that military and political factors heavily constrain how fast U.S. forces should leave. They cite a continuing need to assist Iraq's fledgling security forces, ensure establishment of a permanent government, suppress the insurgency and reduce the potential for civil war.
U.S. military commanders, too, continue to favor a gradual, phased reduction, saying that too rapid a departure would sacrifice strategic gains made over the past 30 months and provide a propaganda windfall to insurgents.
Posted by: musicone63 at November 23, 2005 06:12 AM
Actually, you haven't been reading the blog very closely if you think this hasn't already been mentioned and discussed. As for leaks, I've read the article. It does not discuss how the information on the CIA secret flights was gathered. Unless you have other information which you have not shared here, you're simply presuming that some sort of leak has occurred.
If we're going to speculate, I think we should also consider why the establishment and existence of these secret prisons wasn't shared with, much less approved by, the Congress of the United States.
I, for one, am extremely concerned about the integration of torture and abusive practices into our intelligence gathering. The VP of Torture who has advocated and greenlighted these practices has a great deal to answer for and we do need to find out just how far people have taken the "anything's ok if you're fighting the GWOT" approach.
Thanks for bringing this article to our attention.
Happy B-Day DCP!
wow
O'liely seeing the light?
O'Reilly Column Says U.S. Needs Timetable to Get Out of Iraq
By E&P Staff
Published: November 22, 2005 1:17 PM ET
NEW YORK Conservative commentator Bill O'Reilly writes in his current column that there needs to be a timetable for the U.S. to leave Iraq.
"Let's win the damn thing," he said in his Creators Syndicate feature. "But there must be a time limit. Mr. Bush and his crew have to understand that American blood and treasure are not unlimited. It is not undermining the war to suggest giving the Iraqis a realistic private timetable to defend themselves. Basic training for a U.S. soldier is six weeks. We've been training the Iraqi army for almost two years now. Even Gomer Pyle would be up to speed."
The Fox News host added that "polls show most Americans have turned against the war, and who can blame them with the media pounding home a depressing picture every day? And there are plenty of depressing images to show. Although most of the country is pacified, Baghdad remains a nightmare. ... But voting is happening, and business is being done. So let's build on that and give the Iraqis a realistic time frame to fight their own fight. ... We need to get out of there."
http://www.mediainfo.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001526357
mkh,
On the way up to NYC yesterday, I heard Rep. Roscoe Bartlett, a right-wing Congressman from red Maryland, say almost the same thing. I almost drove off the road.
I called Dick and Casey and said "Hell just froze over."
This war is OVER.
Posted by: musicone63 at November 23, 2005 06:12 AM
If the leak you are referring to is the original leak of information by apparently a GOP Senate member or staffer (according to Senator Lott), the joint Congressional probe is on hold, and the justice department is investigating.
Be patient musicone63; remember that Pat Fitzgerald took almost two years to find the truth, and had to deal with obstructive witness(es) and journalists with a bizarre interpretation of the First Amendment and shield laws in the course of the investigation.
In the meantime, if you are eager for Congressional investigation results that have harmed people and completely supplanted the democratic process, there's the Abramoff Follies over at Josh' Marshall's TPM Cafe.
Also, if you are under the mistaken impression that the revelation of Valerie Plame's identity did not do very serious harm to actual people, you should go and read Larry Johnson's (23 year CIA veteran) piece at TPM Cafe, or Bill Buckley's piece at The Corner for an education as to what the real world effects were of that revelation.
BOSTON (AP) — Sen. John Kerry’s public profile and prosecutorial past didn’t spare him from performing that most mundane of civic responsibilities - jury duty.
Kerry was not only chosen this week to sit on a jury in Suffolk Superior Court, but also was elected foreman.
The case involved two men who sued the city for injuries suffered in a 2000 car accident involving a school principal. The Kerry-led jury rejected their claim Tuesday, and his fellow jurors said the state’s junior senator was a natural leader.
“I just found him to be a knowledgeable, normal person,” said Cynthia Lovell, a nurse and registered Republican who says she now regrets voting for President Bush in last year’s election. “He kept us focused. He wanted us all to have our own say.”
The former Democratic presidential candidate reported for duty Monday and none of the lawyers in the case objected to putting him on the jury.
“I was a little surprised,” Kerry said of being selected for jury duty.
“I enjoyed it,” he said. “It was very, very interesting and very instructive.”
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http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/K/KERRY_JURY_DUTY?SITE=FLDAY&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT