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We Can Make A Difference - We Already Have
Before the 2004 election, potential donors lined up to shake hands with Vice President Cheney at a fundraiser in Topeka. First, they were required to use Purell, a hand sanitizer that claims to kill "99% of common germs." Afterward, Cheney ducked backstage and globbed up his own hands, effectively cleansing himself of human contact. By November 7, it was the voters doing the cleansing and washing their hands of the Bush-Cheney regime. According to exit polls, 68% said the war was "very" or "extremely" important, 83% said the economy was. You would not have known it according to media pundits, who had to do a lot of dancing to try to explain it.
(Courtesy The Hightower Lowdown, Vol. 8 No.12, available only by subscription)
I think there exists a stereotype that the average political activist/blogger is a college kid, but demographic studies of the makeup of the larger political blogs have debunked that. When Fe Bongolan and I attended YearlyKos, for Daily Kos site, the demographics and our own eyes showed us many political activists in the 30-70 or so range. From what I've been reading, these trends mirror activism as expressed by reliable voting patterns. Those of us who are over 50 who have started to receive our AARP newsletter were informed in the last issue that 50+ voters are much more important than most of us even realized.
("Two Raging Grannies" photo courtesy of Kayakbiker)
There are a lot - 52% of the voters in the November 2006 election were over 50 years of age.
They'll be key in the 2008 election - votes in the 50-64 age group shifted 13% Republican to Democrat between 2004 and 2006, while votes in the 65+ group shifted 18%!
There are many Independents. 9 of every 10 Republicans voted for Republicans, 9 of every 10 Democrats votes for Democrats, but Independents tipped the scale. Independents 50-64 voted 55-44 for Democrats, while those over 54 voted 50-44 for Democrats. That's huge!
The majority are angry. They don't like Bush, they don't like the way Congress has operated, and they don't like the direction the country is heading in. They disapprove of the handling of the Iraq War.
(Statistics courtesy of AARP Bulletin, December 2006)
The Youth Vote - it's not just the "Boomers." Young voters (18-29) had the highest turnout in 20 years - for a midterm election even! They overwhelmingly favored Democrats (60% to 30%).
Candidates have defected. The makeup of the Legislative branch has radically changed and we haven't even got to see lawmakers in action when they aren't so outnumbered their hands are largely tied. The concept of the "unitary executive" needs to be deconstructed and in fact disemboweled and we need to strengthen the balance of powers to do it. The Supreme Court, despite it's more conservative new members, did not grant the wishes of the far right and abolish Roe v Wade. There is no national Defense of Marriage Act and the Vice President is going to be grand daddy of a child with two moms.
It's a long uphill struggle for us, but it doesn't seem like a promising time to be a conservative in this country. Americans are historically a pragmatic bunch with a "can do" attitude, and it's just common sense that the neoconservative policies of this administration are not working, economically or militarily.
Though Ford helped launch the careers of Rumsfeld and Cheney, he also participated in a four hour interview with Bob Woodward later, in which he disagreed with Bush on going into Iraq. It should be appearing in the Washington Post.
http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/12/27/ford.iraq/index.html?eref=rss_topstories
(I was only able to post after refreshing my browser)
Everything seems to work fine now (for posting).
Am very interested in how we can make sure Congress exercises their oversight now and in how they can investigate what went wrong in the past and do something about it. Would love to be a mouse in the corner when they open up for business in 2007 and would love to know what they're thinking now (also the Republicans, including those frustrated with their party).
And what can we do?
Did I hear a blurb that DimWit is delivering the eulogy for Ford? Or did I mis-hear some blurb and it's Poppy Bush who's delivering the eulogy? Revelations about Ford's disapproval of Sonny-Boy's war and wiretapping, etc., likely aren't going to garner any glowing tributes for Ford....
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/ford_iraq
Ford had problems with Bush Iraq policy
WASHINGTON - Former President Gerald R. Ford questioned the Bush administration's rationale for the U.S. invasion and war in Iraq in interviews he granted on condition they not be released until after his death.
In his embargoed July 2004 interview with The Washington Post, Ford said the Iraq war was not justified, the Post reported Wednesday night.
Ford "very strongly" disagreed with the current president's justifications for invading Iraq and said he would have pushed alternatives, such as sanctions, much more vigorously, the Post's Bob Woodward wrote. The story initially was posted on the newspaper's Internet site.
"I don't think I would have gone to war," Ford told Woodward a little more than a year after President Bush launched the invasion.
In the tape-recorded interview, Ford was critical not only of Bush but also of Vice President Cheney — Ford's White House chief of staff — and then-Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, who served as Ford's chief of staff and then his secretary of defense.
"Rumsfeld and Cheney and the president made a big mistake in justifying going into the war in Iraq. They put the emphasis on weapons of mass destruction," Ford said. "And now, I've never publicly said I thought they made a mistake, but I felt very strongly it was an error in how they should justify what they were going to do."
In an interview given with the same ground rules to the New York Daily News last May, Ford said he thought Bush had erred by staking the invasion on claims Saddam had weapons of mass destruction.
"Saddam Hussein was an evil person and there was justification to get rid of him," he observed to the Daily News. "But we shouldn't have put the basis on weapons of destruction. That was a bad mistake. Where does (Bush) get his advice?"
~~~~~
The former president did not like Bush's domestic surveillance program.
"It may be a necessary evil," Ford conceded. "I don't think it's a terrible transgression, but I would never do it. I was dumbfounded when I heard they were doing it."
{{{Click on link for more.}}}
Seen at Johnkerry.com, from Ron Chusid at http://www.liberalvalues.com - but from the site of http://www.juancole.com for more specifics on each myth.
Top Ten Myths About Iraq
The United States “can still win” in Iraq
US military sweeps of neighborhoods can drive the guerrillas out
The United States is best off throwing all its support behind the Iraqi Shiites
Iraq is not in a civil war
The second Lancet study showing 600,000 excess deaths from political and criminal violence since the US invasion is somehow flawed
Most deaths in Iraq are from bombings
Baghdad and environs are especially violent but the death rate is lower in the rest of the country
Iraq is the central front in the war on terror
The Sunni Arab guerrillas in places like Ramadi will follow the US home to the American mainland and commit terrorism if we leave Iraq
Setting a timetable for withdrawal from Iraq is a bad idea
Posted by: NonnyO at December 28, 2006 11:11 AM
Don't kid yourself. Sonny Boy will glom onto any chance to redeem himself through Ford's "quality values".......
Won't work. To quote Cyrano in a sense, the kid has done for America what he did for his other companies.
Have a great day. I'm at work and need to get going.....
US Government Pressures Banks to Stop Dealing With Iran
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/122806O.shtml
Dozens of banks have stopped or scaled back their businesses with Iran and other "rogue states" after informal pressure from the US government aimed at sidestepping the need for international sanctions.
Bombs Rock Baghdad as Saddam Judgment Published
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/122806J.shtml
An Iraqi court has published its formal written condemnation of Saddam Hussein, putting in motion the legal machinery which will lead to his execution, while dozens of civilians were killed and the military confirmed the deaths of three more soldiers. This brings December's toll to 99, keeping it on course to be the bloodiest month for US troops this year.
FORD'S LEGACY IS CHENEY AND RUMSFELD
By Tara Lohan
Jon Wiener writes for the Nation about the political appointments made by Ford.
http://www.alternet.org/blogs/peek/45989/
~~~~~
Ver-r-r-r-ry Interesting....!
Jack Blatherwick, PhD | Memorization, Standardized Tests, and Official Policy
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/122806K.shtml
Jack Blatherwick writes: "Better we teach our children no answers - only questions and suspicions, courage and insight to detect official ideology. They will need wisdom beyond ours to rebuild our trusted position of leadership in a peaceful world - to restore environmental health to a wounded planet - and to redefine concepts like patriotism, democracy, and morality. They will need an extraordinary education, not short answers. Testing and retesting is no substitute for investment in education."
{{{I agree with this assessment. I've also heard teachers complain about having to 'teach to the tests.'}}}
"Thank God we got the criminals, and America got the Puritans!
~ Australian folk saying"
Damn.
When you put it that way we really got screwed.
Ex-Maine Lawmaker Plans Anti-War Offensive
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/122806R.shtml
Tom Andrews, the former Maine congressman who used his position as national director of Win Without War to argue against invading Iraq, is now urging the Democratically controlled Congress to bring the troops home.
Many Soldiers Call Troop Surge a Bad Idea
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/122806S.shtml
Many of the American soldiers trying to quell sectarian killings in Baghdad don't appear to be looking for reinforcements. They say the temporary surge in troop levels some people are calling for is a bad idea.
Former Bush Interior Secretary Takes Job as Attorney for Shell
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/122806T.shtml
Months after she resigned her cabinet post as President Bush's interior secretary, Gale Norton is back as a key legal advisor for Royal Dutch Shell PLC.
(My son just asked me last night - "What happened to Gail Norton?" He also said Biden can stop deployment of 30,000 more troops & McCain will be pissed.)
Euro to Overtake US Dollar
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/122806E.shtml
The value of euro notes in circulation is this month likely to exceed the value of circulating dollar notes, according to calculations by the Financial Times. Converted at Wednesday's exchange rates, the euro took the lead in October.
William Hogeland | Our Founding Illegals
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/122806D.shtml
William Hogeland writes: "Every nation is a nation of immigrants. Go back far enough and you'll find us all, millions of potential lives, tucked in the DNA of our African mother, Lucy. But the immigrant experience in the United States is justly celebrated, and perhaps no aspect of that experience is more quintessentially American than our long heritage of illegal immigration."
William Rivers Pitt | A Sentinel in Time
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/122806A.shtml
"Everything we have endured these last six years - the death, the horror, the fear, the anger - was born that afternoon in Washington, DC," writes William Rivers Pitt. "We have already suffered myriad consequences because of it - the shame of Abu Ghraib; the lingering fear of blue skies and airplanes; the ebb tide of freedom as rights become privileges too easily withheld, the bottomless sorrow stitched into nearly three thousand folded American flags while taps played to the wind - and it is a bleak certainty that further suffering born on that day lies in wait."
Ford Disagreed With Bush About Invading Iraq
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/122806B.shtml
Ford "very strongly" disagreed with the current president's justifications for invading Iraq and said he would have pushed alternatives, such as sanctions, much more vigorously. In the tape-recorded interview, Ford was critical not only of Bush but also of Vice President Cheney - Ford's White House chief of staff - and then-Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, who served as Ford's chief of staff and then his Pentagon chief.
{Another story about the Ford interview with different and more extensive quotes.}
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/arianna-huffington/white-house-pushes-for-tr_b_37240.html
White House Pushes for Troop Surge, Best Advice of Generals Be Damned
Amy Goodman: Shooting the messenger is a war crime:
More than 120 reporters and other media workers have been killed in Iraq since the invasion. In August 2003, Reuters cameraman Mazen Dana was filming outside Abu Ghraib prison when a machine-gun bullet tore through his chest. The Pentagon said the soldiers had "engaged a cameraman."
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/297417_amy28.html
Ice Shelf Collapse Sends Chill
http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/122806EA.shtml
An ancient ice shelf has cracked off northern Ellesmere Island, creating an enormous 66-square-kilometer ice island and leaving a trail of icy blocks in its wake.
Yes, there will be mourning for President Ford for 8 days.
It is customary.
The Godfather of Soul is also being greatly honored. I had read his bio very recently and he went to great lengths to entertain in Vietnam, after being discouraged repeatedly from doing so. I am with the crowds in spirit.
http://www.ohio.com/mld/ohio/entertainment/gossip/16338806.htm
Even in death, James Brown can move a crowd. Thousands of people danced and sang in the streets outside the Apollo Theater in a raucous celebration Thursday of the music legend's life as his body was displayed on the stage where he made his 1956 debut.
Music thumped from storefronts and portable stereos. Brown's wails and growls even blasted inside the auditorium as fans marched quietly, single-file past his open gold coffin.
Brown lay resplendent in a blue suit, white gloves and silver shoes. Flanking the casket were giant photographs of the singer performing. An arrangement of red flowers on a white background spelled out his nickname: Godfather.
It was maybe the first time the hardest-working man in show business graced a stage in stillness, but that didn't stop his fans from partying.
"This is a celebration of his life," said 41-year-old Bryant Preudhomme of suburban New York. "James Brown gave you heart. He lifted you up when you were down. He gave you hope."
"Everything we have endured these last six years - the death, the horror, the fear, the anger - was born that afternoon in Washington, DC," writes William Rivers Pitt.
Posted by: NonnyO at December 28, 2006 07:12 PM
I could not disagree more. This is another of those *twists* of truth and word definitions that we've talked about here.
I'll bring in the entire Shakespeare quote, from which monkey and otter took words for play in the last thread. Cleverly done, guys!
From Macbeth, Act 5, Scene 5
On learning of his wife's death, Macbeth says:
She should have died hereafter;
There would have been a time for such a word.
To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day
To the last syllable of recorded time,
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more: it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.
The endurance of Shakespeare is that his plays are relevant for any time in human history. Terrorism didn't begin on 9/11. It began at the dawn of time. Show me a time when unjustified large scale murders have not been happening. It is the rich and powerful wielding their might that is *terrorism*.
How many people can we kill with a single strike? This has been the challenge of civilisations since time began on this planet. At the end of WW2, the US did a little testing and dropped a couple of bombs. Millions of civilians were killed and future generations continue under such a horrifying legacy.
I see the argument. The war might not have stopped if we hadn't. Well, there are several ideas about that and all probably have merit. But when we can inflict such atrocities on millions of peaceful citizens in another place, why can't someone else do so to us on a teeny (by comparison) scale?
These conflicts are NOT about terrorism or 9/11!
Agreed
from http://www.dailykos.com today - excuse the general link but this lid of the laptop will only stay open at a 40 detree angle.
Bush not attending Ford ceremonies
by kos
Thu Dec 28, 2006 at 05:19:25 PM PST
The right wing blogs and Drudge are beside themselves that Harry Reid won't attend Iraq war and Bush Administration critic and former president Gerald Ford's funeral.
Seems that Bush was off galavanting around the world and missed Ronald Reagan's funeral.
Bush, who is on vacation, missed Reagan's service in the Capitol, too, because he was attending a G-8 summit
I don't remember right-wingers hyperventilating over that one. And Reagan is their patron saint.
And having missed that one, the vacationing Bush is in no hurry to get back for Ford's commemorative ceremonies.
President Bush will not attend weekend ceremonies including a Capitol Rotunda service, but he will return to Washington from his Texas ranch on Monday, pay respects to Ford while his remains lie in state at the Capitol, and speak Tuesday at services for Ford at the National Cathedral.
Reid and his bipartisan group of Senators are on a diplomatic and trade mission. Bush is "clearing brush" or whatever down in Crawford. He didn't cut one of his vacations short for Katrina. He sure as heck ain't gonna cut it short for former President Ford.
I'm sure there will be great outrage from those dark, right-wing corners of the political fringes, right?
Right?
That said, who cares if Bush or Reid or anyone else attends the ceremony? Apparently, only those trying to score cheap political points at the expense of incoming majority leader Reid and the Democrats.
Ford on Bush - from Beyond the Grave
http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,,1979658,00.html
peole in London are just getting their morning papers
Cindy Sheehan arrested near Bush ranch
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uslatest/story/0,,-6308852,00.html
Meet the New Boss. Same as the Old Boss
December 29, 2006
Editorial
The Rush to Hang Saddam Hussein
The important question was never really about whether Saddam Hussein was guilty of crimes against humanity. The public record is bulging with the lengthy litany of his vile and unforgivable atrocities: genocidal assaults against the Kurds; aggressive wars against Iran and Kuwait; use of internationally banned weapons like nerve gas; systematic torture of countless thousands of political prisoners.
What really mattered was whether an Iraq freed from his death grip could hold him accountable in a way that nurtured hope for a better future.
(snip)
What might have been a watershed now seems another lost opportunity. After nearly four years of war and thousands of American and Iraqi deaths, it is ever harder to be sure whether anything fundamental has changed for the better in Iraq.
This week began with a story of British and Iraqi soldiers storming a police station that hid a secret dungeon in Basra. More than 100 men, many of them viciously tortured, were rescued from almost certain execution. It might have been a story from the final days of Baathist rule in March 2003, when British and American troops entered Basra believing they were liberating the subjugated Shiite south. But it was December 2006, and the wretched men being liberated were prisoners of the new Iraqi Shiite authorities.
Toppling Saddam Hussein did not automatically create a new and better Iraq. Executing him won’t either.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/29/opinion/29fri1.html
The year that was...........
Australian Broadcasting Corporation
http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2006/s1819375.htm
Broadcast: 28/12/2006
The year that was in the Middle East
Reporter: Matt Brown
SCOTT BEVAN: With 2007 fast approaching the Middle East is bracing itself for more uncertainty, after another year of violence and war. Despite a month old cease fire the Israeli Government announced overnight it will resume operations against Palestinian militants who fire rockets from the Gaza Strip. And the so called "road map to peace" appears to be in tatters, with the United States claiming Israel is planning to build a new Jewish settlement in the occupied West Bank. Elsewhere in the strife torn region each new day brings more bloodshed in Iraq. Iran continues to be the pariah of the West as it sticks to its nuclear policy, while Lebanon remains on tenterhooks four months after its war with Israel. ABC correspondent Matt Brown looks back at the year that was in the Middle East.
MATT BROWN: This was, in many ways, the year of the pariah. The year in which the ostracised and out of favour made their play for real power and, despite the muscle and might of America, they made important progress.
AMAL SAAD-GHORAYEB, CARNEGIE ENDOWMENT, BEIRUT: What we're basically talking about here is a strategic axis which extends from Iran to Syria to Hezbollah in Lebanon to Hamas and they are basically partners in confronting the United States and Israel.
MATT BROWN: In the Palestinian territories, the Islamist militant group Hamas won democratic elections and took control of the Palestinian Government. It was a stunning victory all round. Hamas came to power, offering a 10 year truce with Israel if Israel would withdraw from the Palestinian land it conquered in 1967.
AZIZ DWEIK, HAMAS SPEAKER OF PARLIAMENT: The two-step solution is something that depends on Israel. If Israel would like to live in peace with the Palestinians and giving them their rights, I think things would be OK.
MATT BROWN: But Hamas was founded on a devout desire to destroy Israel, and the Hamas Government was quickly cut off from the crucial international cash flow to the Palestinians. Then gunmen, including members of Hamas, captured an Israeli soldier patrolling the border with the Gaza Strip. Gilad Shilat disappeared into the streets and allays of Gaza, once of the most densely populated places on earth. Israel struck back with a vengeance. Hundreds of Palestinians, civilians and gunmen alike, were killed in a series of punishing air raids and ground attacks that left Gaza reeling. But Hamas has not been defeated. Iran has stepped into the breach with hundreds of millions of dollars in support.
MICHAEL OREN, MILITARY HISTORIAN, JERUSALEM: They are both Islamic extremists, albeit the Shi'ite-Sunni divide. They're both anti Western. They share a desire to overthrow pro Western moderate regimes in the region. So the interest is not just financial, it exists on far deeper levels of religion and political goals.
MATT BROWN: Hamas is now on the edge of a civil war with the more moderate Fatah party headed by the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. While the West is backing Abbas, the outcome is far from clear. The democratic Arab Spring heralded by the United States has been decidedly stormy.
AMAL SAAD-GHORAYEB: Elections that had been encouraging in Palestine and Egypt ended up with Islamist victories and its last potential success story or showcase, Lebanon, appears to be slipping out of its hands as well, now.
MATT BROWN: It began with another audacious move by an enemy of Israel. Two Israeli soldiers were captured and eight were killed on Israel's border with Lebanon. The Iranian backed Shi'ite militia Hezbollah was behind the raid and it fired thousands of missiles into Israel. Israel responded with even more force than it used in Gaza. Two million people Israelis and Lebanese on either side of the border lived in fear of death from the air at any minute and most were forced to flee their homes.
ISRAELI RESIDENT: Why they shoot me? They don't like the Israeli? You don't like the Israeli? The Hezbollah? Why?
LEBANESE RESIDENT: It's very upsetting, what's happened to this country. It's a very beautiful country.
MATT BROWN: Israel rained tens of thousands of bombs down on Hezbollah positions in south Lebanon and south Beirut.
MICHAEL OREN: On purely military terms Israel won an overwhelming victory. We destroyed Hezbollah's mini state in Lebanon. All that elaborate array of underground bunkers and caches and headquarters, completely destroyed. Not a brick left on a brick.
MATT BROWN: In fact Hezbollah, backed by Iran, managed to transform military defeat into a sort of political victory.
MICHAEL OREN: Two Israeli soldiers remain hostages in Lebanon and, if anything, Hezbollah's political clout in Lebanon has been strengthened rather than diminished.
MATT BROWN: Lebanese killed 119 Israeli soldiers and 44 Israeli civilians. Israel killed 500 Hezbollah fighters and around 600 Lebanese civilians. For weeks the United States refused to call for a cease fire in the war, despite the mounting death toll. Its chief diplomat was remarkably candid about the reasons why.
CONDOLEEZZA RICE, US SECRETARY OF STATE: What we're seeing here in a sense is the birth pangs of a new Middle East and whatever we do we have to be certain that we're pushing forward to the new Middle East, not going back to the old one.
MATT BROWN: The contrast between vision and reality could not have been more stark than in Iraq. When Sunni insurgents bombed the Shi'ite mosque at Samarra they unleashed an escalating spiral of sectarian violence, pitting Sunni Muslims against their Shiíite neighbours. American and Iraqi forces managed to kill Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi - the leader of al Qaeda in Iraq was dead. Saddam Hussein was on trial, but the murder toll continued to skyrocket. Iraq this year was, quite simply, more and more out of American control. Iranian backed Shi'ite militias waged a bloody conflict against their Sunni enemies.
AMAL SAAD-GHORAYEB: It illustrated that the US was a very, very weak power, especially given that it was occupying that country. It did not achieve any of its strategic aims in Iraq. It just fuelled anger, not only within Iraq but within the entire Arab world.
MATT BROWN: Where does all this lead? It leads, of course, to the rising power across the Persian Gulf, to Iran, America's avowed enemy in the Middle East.
AMAL SAAD-GHORAYEB: What's interesting is a country like Iran, a Shi'ite non Arab country, has become probably the most influential power in the Arab world and really the standard bearer, if you like, of Arabism.
MICHAEL OREN: This is the year of Iran in the Middle East. Iran is on a roll in the Middle East, just about in every quarter of the Middle East. Iran has replaced Egypt as the dominant Muslim State in this region.
MATT BROWN: A state that began the year being warned not to keep up with its controversial nuclear program, but went ahead anyway, even in the face of looming sanctions.
MICHAEL OREN: They're laughing in Tehran. They have the example of Pakistan before them. They have the example of North Korea, more recently, before them. They see how countries can defy the international will.
MATT BROWN: Perhaps the last days of 2006 bore witness to a different future. In Iran the hardliners connected to the radical President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, suffered a serious blow in local elections. If there is hope in the ballot box after all, it remains to be seen whether the United States could bring itself to talk to those who might change course in Tehran.
SCOTT BEVAN: That report from Matt Brown.
© 2006 ABC
US Taking Dangerous Gamble in Mogadishu
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,20989411-31477,00.html
You don't hear much about this in MSM, yet we are heavily involved behind the scenes and could be impacted, ot to mention people in Somalia. We already have many many Somalian refugees in places like Seattle and Minneapolis.
Mathew Carnicelli
The new boss was there before the old boss and has returned!
British Petroleum has a long history there just as Royal Dutch Shell was involved in Vietnam before we ever went there.
Woz
Why does Condi Rice make all the birthing metaphors (labor pains etc). It's strange.
Nonny O already posted the link to this article:
William Rivers Pitt | A Sentinel in Time
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/122806A.shtml . . .
but I wanted to add excerpts from his very powerful concluding paragraphs:
". . . truth standing sentinel against despair. We are that truth - all of us, every one. We are a defiant counterweight that can tip the scales of history. The wellspring of limitless possibility and potential that is humanity's astonishing birthright bestows upon each of us the means to be the alchemists of our own fate.
" You are the bulwark, as this new year approaches: a defining line between the possible and the inevitable. . . .
"You are stronger than history, if you choose to be so. The future is yours to create, if you choose to do so. The moments to come are yours. Let nothing and no one steal them from you. Guard them with your life, because that is exactly what they ar"e.
We have a virtual wake going on at the virtual shrine to James Brown at http://www.silencedmajority.blogs.com - tributes and memoirs welcome and pass it on!!
Great transcript and video here:
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/12/29/1446218
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/6216167.stm
Saddam team 'to take belongings'
Lawyers for former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein have confirmed to the BBC that they have been asked to pick up his personal effects.
But an Iraqi official denied that he has been handed from US military to Iraqi custody, following earlier reports this had already happened.
Saddam Hussein could be hanged at any time over the next four weeks, after an appeal against his execution failed.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061229/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq
Judge: Saddam to be executed by Saturday
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061229/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/us_iraq
Pentagon: U.S. forces ready for violence
{{{Click on links for more.}}}
The New York Times | The Rush to Hang Saddam Hussein
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/122906K.shtml
The New York Times writes: "Toppling Saddam Hussein did not automatically create a new and better Iraq. Executing him won't either."
Defense Secretary Is Wary of Adding More Iraq Troops
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/122906L.shtml
With President Bush leaning toward sending more soldiers to pacify Iraq, his defense secretary is privately opposing the buildup.
Cindy Sheehan to Ramp Up "Peace Surge" After Arrest Thursday
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/122906M.shtml
"Peace Mom" Cindy Sheehan was arrested Thursday for blocking a road near President Bush's ranch. Sheehan said she plans to become more "confrontational" and that it's time to "ramp up" peace efforts with a "peace surge." The five protesters, including Dede Miller, Gerry Fonsecca, Carl Rising-Moore and Jeri Reed, were arrested on misdemeanor charges of obstructing a roadway. The group is expected to be bonded out of the McLennan County Jail today.
Ed Pilkington | The "Untouchables" of US Science
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/122906P.shtml
Ed Pilkington writes, "George Bush issued a presidential decree banning the use of federal funds for research on new human embryonic stem cell lines.... Dr. Eggan and his team were able to carry on their work only because Harvard was committed to it and wealthy enough to fund it privately. But overnight, the ban turned them into the equivalent of dogs suspected of carrying rabies. Everything they did or touched, from high-tech equipment down to paperclips and the electricity used in the building, had to be quarantined from federally funded labs around them."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/6213823.stm
Thousands bid farewell to Brown
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/6216313.stm
Police face Katrina murder charge
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/6215541.stm
US body backs sale of cloned food
Meat and milk from cloned animals is safe for human consumption, the US food regulator said in a draft ruling.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) ruled that cloned cattle, pigs and goats produced food "as safe as the food we eat every day".
The recommendation, coming after a five-year study, is a major step towards allowing food from animals onto US supermarket shelves.
{{{More on link. I haven't formed an opinion on foodstuffs from cloned animals yet - mostly because I fail to see the reason for cloning in the first place. Aren't enough animals produced via the old-fashioned way...? I haven't heard of any shortage in the food supply. I do think any products from cloned animals should, however, be clearly labeled. I'm still not convinced that there is any necessity to clone animals for food consumption, however, so I just don't get it.}}}
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/marty-kaplan/woodwards-woody_b_37284.html
Woodward's Woody
Excerpt (more on link):
But I don't fault the cone of silence under which Woodward heard Ford's confession. Obituary writers routinely coax their living subjects into saying things they don't want published until after their passing, and if that's the persona Woodward put on -- or maybe it was his Future Historian mask -- then it wouldn't be the first time that he'd beguiled a source into singing.
The person I do fault is Ford. There was no national interest to be served by keeping his thoughts to himself. Former presidents may constitute a kind of Skull & Bones, but speaking out to try to save us from our next "long national nightmare" would have been way more patriotic than preserving the towel-snapping bonhomie of the Ex-POTUS Society.
One by one, refugees from the Bush Administration have been telling the truth about what goes on inside there. Though Colin Powell has been doing it in a particularly craven way -- telling Washington intimates, off-the-record -- he's been doing it nevertheless. Paul O'Neill did it. Tyler Drumheller, Lawrence Wilkerson, Pentagon whistleblowers, others whose names we didn't know before they exited: they've done it.
Why do these people wait? What does it say about Washington's code of conduct that loyalty to patrons, power and Party outweighs loyalty to truth, to country, to national security, to tens of thousands of America's finest young people, now wounded or dead?
For all we know, Condi, Tony and the rest of them may already be whispering sweet somethings into Bob's ear. It may be verbal Viagra for him. But for them, it's too late. The I-fought-it-from-the-inside tales they tell Bob, or their memoirs, or their biographers, will undo no damage they have done. Their reputations, like their conscience, are already beyond salvage.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rj-eskow/the-dc-confessional-booth_b_37304.html
The DC Confessional Booth: Woodward Does Ford
Excerpts (more on link):
Gerald Ford's proper epitaph, had this interview not come to light, would have been: "He obstructed justice, but he was a nice guy." His Nixon pardon didn't "heal the nation," pundits notwithstanding. It outraged a nation that was hungry for justice after being lied to and manipulated. That's why he lost in 1976.
Until Ford came along, pardons were only granted after a proper trial had brought the facts to light, and the perpetrator had been convicted. Ford's Nixon pardon inaugurated the new Republican role of the pardon - as a tool to prevent investigation, hide the facts, and obstruct justice. It created a new technique to enable criminal behavior, in the knowledge it could be concealed after the fact.
After Nixon came the Reagan pardons of Iran/Contra figures, which suppressed America's ability to learn how deep the scandal and conspiracy ran. Among other things, it left prosecutor Lawrence Walsh complaining in frustration that he was unable to investigate the suspicious behavior of our current President's father.
And this, in a conspiracy that involved funding terrorists (in South America) by cutting a deal with the Iranians who we're told are our blood enemy.
Gerald Ford was a likable guy, and refreshingly unpretentious. But he helped conceal crimes, allowed those crimes to go unpunished, and permitted many more to occur after the fact. Now we learn that he also remained silent when he could have prevented massive loss of life and damage to our national security. That's a disgrace.
~~~~~
I considered the Woodward interview at great length after I read it. Part of me thought that it's useful to know, even in retrospect, that Ford thought this war was a mistake. It adds to the historical record - but at what cost? Woodward and his journalistic ilk have created an environment where their fellow Washington insiders can encourage and promote a tragic mistake like Iraq, through their silence and their support for the Republicans in '04, then magically wipe their own records clean with a well-timed interview.
Call it "confessional booth" journalism - except that, with Woodward, you never have to promise to "sin no more." An example: One well-placed interview with Woody and Colin Powell can regain his stature as a man of integrity, despite repeating statements to the UN and the American people that were demonstrably false at the time. Who's next with the interview-as-exoneration? Rumsfeld?
If it weren't for the reassuring presence of Woody's confessional booth, maybe Colin Powell and his colleagues would have been forced to make the decision they should make: either to do the right thing, or to serve an unjust cause and suffer the condemnation of history. But thanks to Woodward and his kind, they can have it both ways.
In fact, Woodward's confessional booth serves the same purpose as Ford's pardon-in-advance technique: It allows the powerful to do wrong with the comforting knowledge that all can be smoothed over further down the road.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20061229/sc_afp/canadaarctic
Immense ice shelf breaks off in Canadian Arctic
Too funny for words...
http://www.current.tv/pods/supernews/PD03830
One by one, refugees from the Bush Administration have been telling the truth about what goes on inside there. Though Colin Powell has been doing it in a particularly craven way -- telling Washington intimates, off-the-record -- he's been doing it nevertheless. Paul O'Neill did it. Tyler Drumheller, Lawrence Wilkerson, Pentagon whistleblowers, others whose names we didn't know before they exited: they've done it.
Why do these people wait? What does it say about Washington's code of conduct that loyalty to patrons, power and Party outweighs loyalty to truth, to country, to national security, to tens of thousands of America's finest young people, now wounded or dead?
Posted by: NonnyO at December 29, 2006 03:33 PM
NonnyO, you gave the answer to this a couple of posts back:
".... turned them into the equivalent of dogs suspected of carrying rabies. Everything they did or touched, from high-tech equipment down to paperclips and the electricity used in the building, had to be quarantined from federally funded labs around them."
Posted by: NonnyO at December 29, 2006 01:50 PM
Add Jesselyn Radack to this list. This will be your reality when you tell the truth about this administration. Many tentacles of the media will toe the party line and besmirch the truth-tellers, whilst enjoying a more perkful life.
A sobering image.
http://www.theage.com.au/
This photo will change during the day. I hope this one will stay here for the whole day. There are 11 US-flag-draped coffins lined up on a concrete floor and about a dozen soldiers saluting.
Posted by: woz at December 29, 2006 04:55 PM
I can't take credit for those words... those are all quotes from the stories I posted - links provided for the full stories....
:-)
Posted by: woz at December 29, 2006 04:55 PM
Your point is well-taken, however.
Lamestream Media in this country can take much of the blame for what has happened in the last six years with the meteoric rise to power of the Bu$hCo administration, and the truth-tellers have been dissed without anyone examining the truth.
Someday the truth is going to come back to bite them all in their collective arse. Too late, however. The damage has already been done, and too many lives have already been lost.
Disputed Florida Election to Spill Onto House Floor
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/122906R.shtml
A disputed election result in a House of Representatives race in Florida will be one of the first items raised when the Democratic-controlled House convenes next week, injecting partisan politics into the start of the 110th Congress.
{{{Now... will anyone in Lamestream Media (TV) cover this story...?}}}
AT&T Yields to Neutrality, Paves Path to Congress
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/122906T.shtml
AT&T filed a "letter of commitment" with the Federal Communications Commission on Thursday in which it promises to observe Net Neutrality principles for at least 24 months. Now it's left to Congress to follow the FCC's lead and make Net Neutrality permanent under the law.
{{{Quid pro quo. If AT&T can make a few billion, what do they care? They can put off internet interference and control for a few years. Sounds like bribery to me.... I do, however, wonder what the Congress Critters will do to muddle the whole mess and escalate control of the internet.}}}
Our Worst Fears Are Exceeded by Reality
http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/122906EA.shtml
"The signs during the past 12 months have been all around us. Little winter snow in the Alpine ski resorts, continuing droughts in Africa, mountain glaciers melting faster than at any time in the past 5,000 years, disappearing Arctic sea ice, Greenland's ice sheet sliding into the sea... 2006 will be remembered by climatologists as the year in which the potential scale of global warming came into focus," writes Steve Connor.
Age of Grand Canyon Withheld to Cater to Creationists
http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/122906EB.shtml
Grand Canyon National Park is not permitted to give an official estimate of the geologic age of its principal feature, due to pressure from Bush administration appointees. Despite promising a prompt review of its approval for a book claiming the Grand Canyon was created by Noah's flood rather than by geologic forces, more than three years later no review has ever been done and the book remains on sale at the park.
{{{And the dumbing-down of the American populace continues unabated....}}}
US Death Toll in Iraq Nears 3,000
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/122906A.shtml
The US military death toll in Iraq this month continued to rise. Officials reported Thursday that five more American service members had died. The latest deaths brought to 100 the number of service members killed in December, according to iCasualties.org, an independent Web site that tracks military fatalities.
Greg Mitchell | "Surge" Protectors
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/122906B.shtml
Greg Mitchell writes: "Inside reports suggest President Bush has already decided on sending many more troops to Iraq starting next month. Until now, the media has bought into his labeling of this as a mere 'surge.' But the media needs to call it by its proper name: 'escalation.'"
Charles E. Anderson | Deja Vu All Over Again: Haditha and My Lai
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/122906C.shtml
Charles E. Anderson writes: "The alleged war crimes committed at Haditha were not the misdeeds of defective warriors. Nor is it likely that they were committed by Marines suffering from 'personality disorders.' Their actions were the result of conditioning, on both the training field and the battlefield."
....The rush to the tornado shelter interrupted Bush's day at the ranch where he cleared some cedar and was kept abreast of plans to execute Saddam Hussein in Iraq....
http://kutv.com/topstories/topstories_story_363174941.html
Posted by: not my president at December 29, 2006 06:41 PM
Ooooooooh, I was, like, so worried when I, like, found out there was a tornado in that area and, like, The Cretin was taken to a shelter.... [NOT!]
I wonder how many minutes Lamestream Media devoted to that minor incident on this evening's news? [Rhetorical question. I don't want to know. Five seconds would be too much time.]
NonnyO
But isn't that just the most amazingly absurb sentence you have read?
....The rush to the tornado shelter interrupted Bush's day at the ranch where he cleared some cedar and was kept abreast of plans to execute Saddam Hussein in Iraq....
Only in America ..
NonnyO
But isn't that just the most amazingly absurb sentence you have read?
Only in America ..
Posted by: not my president at December 29, 2006 07:15 PM
Yes, it is absurd to the point of madness.... Makes me wonder where Lamestream Media's and DimWit's priorities are that even in the midst of a tornado warning he's ghoulishly keeping up on news of the imminent hanging demise of a man he sought to destroy (taking hundreds of thousands besides nearly 3000 of our own), but thinks so little of the 'news' that he can't do anything more important than clear shrub....
Seriously. With a 'person' like that "leading" this country, we are SO screwed.... I just hope our Congress Critters get off the kool-aid and throw away their rose-tinted glasses before Jan. 3, 2007....
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061230/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_061229202341
3 Marines killed in battle in Iraq
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Three more Marines were killed in battle in Iraq, the U.S. military said Friday, making December the deadliest month this year for American troops in war-wracked nation with the toll reaching 106.
The Marines, all assigned to Regimental Combat Team 5, died Thursday of wounds from fighting in western Anbar province, the U.S. military said. Their deaths pushed the toll past the 105 U.S. service members killed in October.
At least 2,993 members of the U.S. military have been killed since the Iraq war began in March 2003, according to an AP count.
In violence Friday, a suicide bomber killed at least nine people near a Shiite mosque in Baghdad, and 32 tortured bodies were found across the country as Iraqis braced for Saddam Hussein's execution.
{{{More on link.}}}
NonnyO
..clear shrub..
that's so ironic
Posted by: NonnyO at December 29, 2006 05:32 PM
Yes, I realise that NonnyO. That's why I included the entire quote and reference. Thanks.
Posted by: not my president at December 29, 2006 10:19 PM
So it is!! It's hard to find anything funny that he's involved in.
If you or anyone you know would like to post memoirs at our shrine for James Brown, he's lying in state (virtually) for at least as long as the mourning for Gerald Ford is going on, as well as the brouhaha over the execution of Saddam and the speculation about Castro's health.
http://silencedmajority.blogs.com/silenced_majority_portal/
"I don't want nobody to give me nothin' - just open the door and I'll get it myself."
http://www.theage.com.au/news/world/death-of-a-dictator/2006/12/30/1166895511428.html
Death of a dictator
December 30, 2006 - 1:51PM
2.10pm Saddam Hussein is dead, according to reports, hanged at dawn in a bitterly cold Baghdad.
Sky News, the BBC, a US-backed Iraqi TV station and Reuters all say Saddam is believed to have been executed at 6am (2pm eastern Australian time) for crimes against humanity.
There has been no official confirmation and it is not known where the execution took place.
Earlier, Arabic television stations said a Muslim cleric was called to hear any final words and witnesses, including a film crew, were in place for the hanging.
Two witnesses due to attend the execution told Reuters they had been summoned for 5.30am and Arabiya television reported they were present at that hour.
Just hours earlier, a US judge refused a last-minute bid by lawyers for the fallen dictator to stay the execution.
"Petitioner Hussein's application for immediate, temporary stay of execution is denied,'' US District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly said after a hearing over the telephone with lawyers.
Saddam's lawyers filed the court challenge late Friday night, Washington time, giving the judge just hours to act before the execution was expected to be carried out.
His lawyers argued that because the former Iraqi president also faced a civil lawsuit in Washington, he had rights as a civil defendant that would be violated if he is executed.
He has not received notice of those rights and the consequences that the lawsuit would have on his estate, his lawyers said.
The excecution time, 6am in Baghdad, was agreed at a meeting between US and Iraqi officials, said the official, who declined to be named because he is not authorised to speak to the media.
"The time has been agreed upon. It will be done by six o'clock in the morning," the official said.
"The agreement was reached during a meeting between Iraqi and American officials. Saddam will be handed over shortly before the execution."
Saddam's daughter has asked that his body be buried in Yemen, a source close to the family told Reuters.
His daughter Raghd, who is exiled in Jordan, "is asking that his body be buried in Yemen temporarily until Iraq is liberated and it can be reburied in Iraq,'' a source close to the family said by telephone.
Defence lawyer Issam Jhazzawi told Reuters earlier Saddam's daughters were bracing for his imminent death. ``The family are praying for him every minute and are calling on God that He let his soul rest in peace among the martyrs,'' he said.
Saddam was convicted on November 5 of crimes against humanity in the killings of 148 Shi'ite men in the town of Dujail in 1982.
Saddam, who said in court he had no fear of dying, had a farewell meeting with two of his half-brothers on Thursday, his lawyers said, adding the fallen dictator was in high spirits.
He has been held at a US base near Baghdad airport.
Saddam's conviction was hailed by US President George Bush as a triumph for the democracy he promised to foster in Iraq after the 2003 invasion. With US public support for the war slumping as the number of American dead rapidly approaches 3000, Washington is likely to welcome the death of Saddam.
International human rights groups criticised the year-long trial, during which three defence lawyers were killed and a chief judge resigned complaining of political interference.
AGENCIES
unscientific internet poll, but interesting still (see http://www.liberalvalues.com - today)
George Bush tops two lists in a recent poll. An AP-AOL poll found that Bush is the Top Villain of 2006, beating out Osama bin Laden, Saddam Hussein, and Satan. That doesn’t mean that the Bush worshippers aren’t still around. George Bush also topped the Hero of the Year list with 13% naming him their hero.
(He also beat out the N Korean with the big hair and Armored Dinner Jacket from Iran)
Woz
The barbaric execution would be used as a distractor from the hallmark number of 3000.
Yep
It's Haj at Mecca - 2 million observers and 24,000 are Americans.
People in this world have such a hard time absorbing the fact of change. Not everyone is a Christian nor will they be "born again." Global "jihad" is also unrealistic. Averting global warming may not be possible. Peak oil will certainly occur, soon in Kuwait, the 2nd largest producer. If a giant wall were erected along the whole US/Mexico border, there would still be no guarantee that US and Canada would continue to have an Anglo majority. In fact, it could not happen, given demographics. Oil will remain high, the dollar will not be the reference currency. China is ascending, again given demographics. They'll also be contributing to world pollution, the more they develop. There is no military solution to terrorism so no "global war on terror." Spreading democracy will not work even in theory. The Democratic majority can help but cannot stop corruption. The more populist candidates can slow free trade and help labor but can't turn back the clock. Globalization has too big a foothold. The media will focus on spikes in violence such as retaliatory terror attacks but will downplay major events in Magadishu and Darfur because they don't sell as many Humvees for advertisers when talked about.
Hokey Dokey.
Saddam is dead, convicted of killing his own people with poison and bullets and bombs (or whatever) supplied by the US (I still find it moronic of our Congress Critters who approved that sale that they wouldn't know what he was going to do with those poisons - WMD. Duh.)....
Saddam's death may get SonnyBoy's rocks off, and SonnyBoy may feel secure in knowing he gets Saddam's oil for him and his corporate cronies....
But Saddam still did NOT have one thing to do with 9/11....
So, I ask, where's Osama Been Forgotten...?
Can this illegal administration STOP the war in Iraq now and go find Osama...?
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061230/ap_on_go_co/nazi_archive
Lawmakers press for Nazi documents
WASHINGTON - The incoming head of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and other U.S lawmakers are pressing governments to speed up ratification of an agreement that will open up access to millions of documents from the Nazi era in Germany.
{{{Hmmmm.... I bet the Bushistas will fight that one. Grandpappy Herr Boosh had something to do with the Nazis and there might be documents revealing that viper's nest....}}}
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/saddam_legacy
Saddam's reign leaves destruction behind
{{{Say... WHAT? Now Lamestream Media headlines are blaming the dead guy whose country Herr Boosh ordered destroyed by US military after the illegal invasion...? Iraqi people have, after all, been quoted as saying things were better under Saddam - at least they had electricity, running water, jobs, didn't have to fear being killed when they walked out their doors, etc...... Headlines like the above are insane!!! Click link for full story.}}}
Ahhh......now that makes sense. On SBS tv news, when asked why Saddam's sentence was carried out before the trial in which he was to answer his accusers, one expert replied that it was probably to prevent the details of the Bush arming Saddam with the chemicals and other weapons from being exposed. If I can find a transcript I will but for now this is just what I think I heard.
Odd...Saddam's hanging just united my Republican sister and me. We're both feeling sickened that this political move will cause more deaths to our own soldiers.
We both hope and pray not.
sparrow, I agree with you. No one can rest until they are all home.
Americans should never forget that the crime that Saddam Hussein was executed for last night took place a year before he would shake hands with a beaming Donald Rumsfeld. And that he remained an ally of the Reagan and Bush Administrations even after his genocidal campaign against the Kurds. We can only hope, after the expenditure of nearly three thousand American lives, and four hundred billion dollars of American treasure, that the Iraq that emerges under the influence of a Moqtada al-Sadr will be less cruel and bloody than Saddam's - but we shouldn't count on it.
Ironic that the thread above starts with Cheney, who used to be head of Halliburton, washing his hands ..
Robert Fisk | A Dictator Created Then Destroyed by America
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/123006Z.shtml
Robert Fisk revisits the circumstances that resulted in Saddam Hussein's rise to power, and asks, "Who encouraged Saddam to invade Iran in 1980, which was the greatest war crime he has committed for it led to the deaths of a million and a half souls? And who sold him the components for the chemical weapons with which he drenched Iran and the Kurds? We did. No wonder the Americans, who controlled Saddam's weird trial, forbad any mention of this, his most obscene atrocity, in the charges against him. Could he not have been handed over to the Iranians for sentencing for this massive war crime? Of course not. Because that would also expose our culpability."
Posted by: mbk at December 29, 2006 11:47 AM
Thanks for pulling out those paragraphs, MBK, Will Pitt speaks for me. :-) As does Senator Ted Kennedy:
"We Can't Ignore Iraq's Refugees"
~~By Edward M. Kennedy * Saturday, December 30, 2006; Page A21
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/29/AR2006122901066.html
As for the original question posed by DiAnne in this blog, the answer for me is to find out which Senators and members of Congress are serving on the committees that matter the most (to me), finding out what their objectives are, and then holding their feet (ie, phone calls, emails) to the fire.
Ron Chusid had a post up a month ago, I posted email, phone and address contact information here for Levin, Leahy, Skelton, Murtha; also, Dwazon posted a wiki site that several dKos people were putting together to track any number of issues. Am on my other computer and don't have that link available.
Here is the link to Ron Chusid's blog topic mentioned above:
"Democrats Plan Investigations"
http://liberalvaluesblog.com/?p=770
Carl Levin, Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee
http://www.senate.gov/~levin/contact/index.cfm
Call: (202) 224-6221 (Office hours: 8:30 am - 6:00 pm)
Write: 269 Russell Office Building
Washington, DC 20510-2202
(Please note that due to security screening procedures, postal mail may take over two weeks to reach my Washington D.C. office.)
Fax: (202) 224-1388
John Murtha, Chairman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee
http://www.house.gov/murtha/contact.shtml
Call: 800-289-2642 from Western PA (or) 814-535-2642 (or) 202-225-2065
Write: PO Box 780
Johnstown, PA 15907-0780
Fax: (814) 539-6229 -- District
(202) 225-5709 -- Washington
Patrick Leahy of the Senate Judiciary Committee
http://leahy.senate.gov/contact.html
Call: (202) 224-4242
Write: 433 Russell Senate Office Bldg
Washington, DC 20510
Ike Skelton, House Armed Services Committee Chairman
http://www.house.gov/skelton/contact.html
Call: 202-225-2876 (Office hours: 8:30 am to 5:30 pm)
Write: 2206 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515-2504
Please see: http://liberalvaluesblog.com/?p=770
if interested in what these men have said they're going to investigate.
The refugee situation in both Afghanistan and Iraq bothers me enormously, as I'm sure it does anyone who sits in a place with a roof over their head, food in the fridge and hot and cold running water at their fingertips. According to the washingtonpost.com editorial I linked to above, Senator Kennedy is the 'incoming chairman of the Senate immigration, border security and refugee subcommittee,' so he'd be my choice of go-to person solutions to the overwhelming refugee issue.
To me, this is an issue of responsibility and accountability. Despite my opinion of GWB and the PNACs, what was done in Afghanistan and Iraq was done in the name of the country (America) that I love. So *I* am responsible.
What we do for those people after we've bombed and blown up their homes, lives and families is as important to me as anything else I can think of today. "Winning hearts and minds?" I just want to make sure someone has a blanket, you know?
ps. The scant gift-giving that I did this holiday composed soley of handwoven bookmarks made by Afghan refugee women who now live in Pakistan. While I realize if the money got to them at all, it was in the form of pennies, it was all I had to spend and the only way I could justify spending anything at all.
Like DiAnne always reminds us, everything we do counts and everyone we support financially is a decision and a choice. Thanks DiAnne!
Posted by: sparrow at December 30, 2006 04:52 AM
Posted by: Matthew Carnicelli at December 30, 2006 06:50 AM
Wholeheartedly agreed. Saddam was a monster of America's own making.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16400751/
Now, don't tell me we will give up the Iraqi-American vote over this, like we've given up the Cuban, Korean, and Vietnamese votes (and the Indian vote, now with the Indian nuclear agreement).
Sigh.
I should be getting ready for some cheery, bleary New Year's Eve party or other right now.
Instead, I'm checking to make sure I know where my warmest gloves and my driest shoes and all my layers of cold-weather jacketing are located.
Why is that, you ask? Well, it is winter here. And cold weather is scheduled to hit us hard sometime early next week.
And, unfortunately, so is something else.
There's probably something similar scheduled where you live. If not, there certainly should be. And it's not too late for you to add your own voice to those who will be standing out in the cold with me just a few too-short days from now.
Here's the email reminder I received a few days ago:
---------------
The guidelines for scheduling the day of local vigil have been changed to:
* if 3,000 U.S. deaths announced on a Sunday, vigil will be following Tuesday afternoon
* if announced on a Monday, vigil will be Wednesday
* if announced on a Tuesday, vigil will be Thursday
* if announced on a Wednesday, vigil will be Friday
* if announced on Thursday, Friday or Sat., vigil will be following Monday
Vigil venue will be at the Federal Bldg on corner of State Street and South Park Row, [redacted]. The time (4:30 to 5:30 p.m.) and other details remain the same. Here is new phone number to confirm: [redacted]. See you there!!
As of Dec. 17, 2006, the official death count was 2,946. [Now, December 30, the total stands at 2,998.]
Here is the media release for this action:
As the majority of Americans continue their preparations for celebrating the holiday season, the Pentagon will soon be announcing the 3,000th death of a U.S. soldier in Iraq.
'The 9/11 Peace Initiative and its many coalition partners are preparing to mark the 3,000th death with plans for a mostly silent vigil to take place at the [redacted] Federal Building on State Street in downtown [redacted]. "With the major religious holidays upon us, we are especially concerned for the many families and friends in the US, Iraq and other nations who will be grieving those who have died in this tragic war," explained [redacted], organizer. "Our purpose is to stop the war and end this suffering."
'Members and friends of the 9/11 Peace Initiative [one of many local peace-activism groups] will gather within 48 hours of the military's announcement. Beginning at 4:30 and lasting an hour, a tolling bell and peace cranes will remind downtown commuters of the suffering of the war. All are invited to participate.
'An immediate withdrawal of U.S. military forces from Iraq, rather than an increase in U.S. military forces, is the answer sought by the local peace movement.'
-----------------
peacemaking is not a passive verb,
Otter
KJ
Thanks for reading the entire thing - it was intended to be positive.
DiAnne,
Your blog *was* positive, as are your actions. It makes a difference I think, because giving into hopelessness leads to powerlessness and we all have personal power. We have a choice (and a responsibility) on how and where and why we apply our power. Ripples, you know! @;-)
Thanks!
SusanHu highlighted 2 posts yesterday in a diary: one from Riverbend of Baghdad Burning and one from Larisa Alexandrovna with a guest post on Juan Cole’s blog. Both of them speculate on what the real goal is behind Saddam's death at this time.
Here’s the diary link: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/12/29/155724/01
It’s worth it to go on and read Larisa’s complete post and some of the comments…
http://www.juancole.com/2006/12/alexandrovna-guest-op-ed-saddams.html#comments
Hooray. Isn't that something to be proud of? Make a dictator then break him and execute him. My, my, how barbaric.
Things haven't changed much through the years of history.
Sickening.