I remember coming of age in the late 1960s. I served my country during that era, and was convinced that our leaders have done us wrong. I remember American people taking to the streets to stop the war in SE Asia.
Now many years older, I have seen the American people in the streets protesting our war in the Middle East today. In both eras, Americans have answered the call to serve their country. Many of our young people, both then and now, have suffered to defend our country’s interests. The big gainers in both eras were the military-defense establishment that wasted so much of America’s budget.
The anti-Vietnam-era anti-war militancy wasn’t only the radical Weathermen; it was composed of American men and women from every segment of our society, and in its closing days included many veterans of that war. Lies, secrecy, and half-truths characterized Peace with Honor was an often-heard cry as America disengaged. But I know American veterans from that era who are still suffering the results of what they faced in SE Asia.
While I was studying abroad in Sweden in 1976-77, I met quite a number of Americans who had disserted from the military, mostly while on leave, and somehow ended up in Sweden. I was happy when an amnesty was granted that finally allowed them to return to their homes and families.
These days, I am meeting young American veterans who have been to Iraq and Afghanistan, and paid dearly for listening to the call of their leaders who brought them into war without really understanding what we were doing.
The McCain campaign appears to have confused differing definitions of the word ‘radical’. Many of us were radicals during the Vietnam era because we wanted a departure from what was going on there. We wanted change to end the war. Most of us did not advocate extreme measures to end the war.
I know America just can’t take 4 more years of the same stupidity that surrounds our foreign wars today. Urge everyone to go to the polls and elect Obama.
When I look at most of the disturbing and down right ridiculous images of war TODAY I have to say ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!!! Americans as a people should be LIVID that anyone wants to vote for a McCain administration. Clearly, these people have taken leave of their senses. I have never known anger and hurt until I saw a military veteran cry; that is absolutely insane!! We have the right, not the option or responsibility to live in peace and harmony just as sure as you are born into this world. ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!!!! obam/biden '08
Presidential Ignorance
It is frightening though to see the presidential candidate McCain in a tour in Israel arguing against Iran on the basis that Iran is helping Al Qaida! You might notice that the media have rarely or ever mentioned that Iran and Al Qaida are fiercest enemies, and that the Bush administration never tried to establish a foreign policy based on this major factor.
McCain is a military who continues to live in the mindset of the Vietnam War. He sees the world in black and white, from the eyes of an aviator whose job it was to bomb Vietnam and the Vietnamese and who was happy to do it (see his own account of it). He is still not totally free of this addiction (see his happily singing “bomb, bomb, Iran” and calling it a “joke”, during a “presidential” campaign, how reassuring!).
McCain is not a leader, but a soldier. He is more eager to listen to and obey his commander – now general Petraeus, than to make decision on war and peace, for the sake of peace. He wants to be a good soldier and is obsessed with the goodness and usefulness of a military “surge”.
We need a President capable of having a clear and correct vision of the present world; a president that could elaborate a strategy for world peace and to implement it through dialogue and diplomacy. War is something to fight against, not to fight for.
Many know that the cost of the “war in Iraq” is around a trillion dollars in the Budget, but how many have calculated the real cost in terms of missing opportunities for prosperity due to the shift from the civil to the military, and in terms of social peace because of the divisiveness of the war and its negative effects on our civilities?
McCain's years of experience in the Senate are years of repeating the same, mostly nonsense, assertions about the region, chewing the same repeated words, supporting the same wrong superficial ideas that created today’s mess.
McCain is a military who continues to live in the mindset of the Vietnam War. He sees the world in black and white, from the eyes of an aviator whose job it was to bomb Vietnam and the Vietnamese and who is not free from this bombing addiction (see his happily singing “bomb, bomb, Iran” and calling it a “joke”, during a “presidential” campaign, how reassuring!).
The recent clip of the woman accusing Barack Obama is frightening. John Lewis made a great statement, not in comparing McCain to George Wallace, but the hatred that is generated against Obama that is based purely on race. Even McCain's "defense" of Obama was even more shocking. After a woman calls Obama an Arab, McCain "defended" him by saying that he is not Arab and is a good American. What?? Suddenly, it has become a crime to be an Arab... I am surprised that the response wasn't "what's wrong with being an Arab?" This shows McCain's clear inability to deal with sensitive issues that he is not comfortable with. We harken back to the situation where another crazy lady asked McCain "How we defeat the B****? when referring to Hillary."
This is the way in which the Iraq war is justified. Branding the "Arabs" as a subhuman species, where they are the enemy and their body count is something to be cheered for. It is a sad day when we can see in America that there are some amongst us that do not recognize the value of human life. The men, women, and children in Iraq bleed just like we do... they cry just like we do... They too can be patriotic, just like we are... This is why the actions of the McCain campaign are so dangerous, the dehumanization of another individual purely based on race or ethnicity is exactly what happened during slavery and Jim Crow.
Here's the excuse that you all may hear from the right... Bush had it worse for the last 8 years. He has more hateful things shouted at him.
2 counters for that:
1. Bush received the hatred because of his actions as president, not because of his race. It is a very different situation where you cannot change the color of your skin, but you can change your actions.
2. The linking between terrorism and Obama is clearly a racially motivated action. No one constantly reminds the public that Ayers is white. When the low information voters hear terrorist, they think Black Panthers and Al Qaeda. Both were not white groups.
I understand that McCain cannot control who comes to his rallies. However, it clearly shows that McCain only brings out the worst in this country. This is why John McCain is why we can't afford John McCain. I hope that Arab Americans all across the country take a strong stand against McCain.
Senator McCain has served honorably. But the affection he espouses toward veterans doesn't extend to showing up to actually vote for Veterans' issues.
The Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of Amercia issued a roll call and assigned grades to each Senator and Reprsentative on the basis of how they voted. The record stands for itself.
On page 24 of the report we see that Senator Mc Cain was absent for 6 of the 10 votes and voted against a post 9/11 GI Bill Cosponsor which passed by a wide margin. This bill increased the spending on veteran's healthcare by 3.6 Billion dollars. Senator Mc Cain recieved a D for his efforts.
Senator Obama was absent 4 times. He voted in favor of veterans 6 times.
FOR: Veteran's healthcare in 2007 expanding expenditures by 3.7 billion dollars
FOR: Mine Resistant Ambush Protected Vehicles to replace the Humvees
FOR: 4 major revisions of the GI Bill correcting flaws and loopholes that allowed Vets to recieve inferior services.
Senator Obama was rated a B for his efforts.
We also see that Joe Biden was absent 3 times. He voted in favor of the veterans 7 times!
For his efforts Joe was rated a B as well.
So I guess in order to do the job you say you'll do it helps if you show up.
Very timely analysis from the smart editors of the New Yorker about our looming "Choice," as it relates to iraq and other important issues pressing us on toward Nov 4.
1. Continue to hammer 90% vote record of McCain with Bush.
2. "Surge' in Irag- Obama's Commander in Chief judgement was that Iraq was not responsible for 9/11, and that our focus always should have been on Bin Ladin. Tie the Iraq invasion mistake (not proven to be the 9/11 attackers) with our economic hardships (cost per month of the invasion).
I noticed that McCain cringed when Obama did this during his first debate. Wise attack against the "surge" issue.
3. The word "MAVERICKS" dominates. Redefine it (like they are trying to redifine change) and turn it against them. Bush and McCain are reckless mavericks. (so many reasons I need not explain).
4. Patriotic propaganda-
They are going to say that Obama is "UnAmerican". As if a organizer for the working folk is unAmerican. Well, tell the truth about the Palin family. Reports state that Mr.Todd Palin was registered as a member of the: Alaskan Independence Party
. THey wanted to split from the grand U.S.A.
#2 goal of Mr.Todd Palin's Alaskan Independence Party is to:
2) Become a separate and Independent Nation. GO USA! - actualy, these guys want to dump our great nation!
It's always common to hear people say.. time flies. Well, in the last eight years, time has had a broken wing, or two, or three, I'm not really sure the about the anatomy of time. Let's move on..
I can't describe the sickness I feel, when I think of what has taken place. I really don't even recognize this country from where we were eight years ago. Rep's want to blame 9/11, but if we had just tightened our security, sent the CIA after Bin Laden.. Well, that's tuesday morning quarterbacking. I've made a film. Yes a film.. not a video. This film documents in 7 minutes the 4 largest mistakes of Republican leadership; Iraq, Torture, Katrina response, and Scandals (not named Iraq, Torture, FEMA) Please follow me after the fold for a riveting diary and film. And if you're lucky a poll.
I have put up diaries about this -video- film before. So I promise you, right here and now. This is the last one EVER, about this video. Thanks so much for your patience and your patronage. I won't presume to lecture you about what's happened the last eight years. But I will show you that lecture in video form, and will also encourage you to share this video film to any and all who would like to use/link it. God Bless and Thank you...
I'm working on a new video about the CRA and to try and combat this viral meme that Republicans are trying to push about how Clinton and the democrats created this financial crisis. Any and all links would be helpful for that, I have quite a few of the dkos top journals on that subject, and am trying to condense them into video form. Poll is about this new topic..
Prepare for third paragraph nonsequitar- I'll be in St. Louis Thursday night for the debate, if anyone knows of anything cool going on afterward, send me a message. Peace in the Middle East - Yes We CanCurtis
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e2p2hvQzIPY
Low Quality version here---http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4z9euD2_Zz4Low Quality part2 here---http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDQKnXerW2E&feature=related
Hey, I just watched this video of Next-Generation Veterans who support Barack Obama. It really shows that Barack Obama is the only candidate who's consistently put our veterans of the Iraq, Afghanistan and all the other wars, first. Watch it here and share it with your friends today.
17, Admin, YBNI
The pervasive fear over the bailout is actually starting to reveal some other underlying problems in America. Before 2000, I doubt anyone would question whether this plan would return a profit, as Americans would immediately feel confident in their ability to rebound and get our economy up and running in 5 years, tops.
What is evident here is that the self-belief that once defined our nation is gone. We are now at the point where "Drill, Baby, Drill" is actually a strategy that is not laughed out of the room. We have to stop being afraid of believing in ourselves and go back to the days of Kennedy where we went to the moon in 10 years.
Fear has run our lives for the last 8 years. American has cried enough tears over 9/11, Katrina, Rita, and Ike. We have bled enough blood and sweated enough to stain every inch of this great nation and colored the sands of Iraq and Afghanistan. Our time to rise again is now. It is time to cast away the shackles of fear and to embrace the true soul of America once more. It is time to realize that we only cannot achieve what we choose not to do. It is time to believe, not just in ourselves, but in each other, and it is time we got off our knees and defeat the terrorists. Not through bombs or soldiers, but through a clear, resounding demonstration that the American spirit is unbreakable. This great nation's strength lies in its ability to come together, 1st generation, 2nd, 3rd, Native American, and immigrant alike, when we are all called to a cause greater than our own.
Change is not what we need. Believe again, America... Believe...
Congress Adjournment and Artificial Deadlines
Posted: 24 Sep 2008 04:00 PM CDT
This guest post is from: Constantine von Hoffman, a veteran business journalist and writes the blog CollateralDamage.biz.
Every news story about the bailout makes it sound as if Friday is some sort of do-or-die deadline. It’s not. It is just the day Congress wanted to adjourn so they could get home and do some campaigning. Given the magnitude of the crisis and the size of the pig in this particular poke, it’s time for Congress to get its priorities in order. If ever there was a piece of legislation that needed to be carefully considered, this is it.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has said that one of the reasons for adjourning is that “no one knows what to do” at the moment. Senator, that means this is exactly the time when you need to stay at your job and figure it out.
Personally, I have deep doubts about the Paulson/Bernanke plan. It seems like a case of throwing more money at a problem that has already not responded to the amazing amount of money thrown at it. Whether or not this is the case, it certainly is a hasty and desperate move and deserves a thoughtful consideration. It obviously needs more oversight. Just the idea of whether the government should buy these assets at a premium or discounted price needs some very close examination.
These issues and many more make it essential that Congress not adjourn now. We, the people, need our representatives to be fully informed before making a decision like this. This is the one duty Congress has, the one reason we vote for them in the first place. This duty easily trumps the mere career issue of whether or not they get some extra time in the home district.
If these reasons weren’t enough, let’s put to rest the notion that most members of Congress even need to campaign. Unless we take a notable deviation from history, something like 90+% of them are going to get re-elected. As the historian Thomas Patterson has noted: “Only about three dozen of the 435 House seats were actually in play in 2002. In nearly twice that many districts, there was literally no competition: the weaker major party did not bother even to nominate a candidate. And in several hundred other districts, the competition was so one-sided that the result was known even before the campaign began. As was the case in 2000, the victors in House races won by an average margin of more than two to one.” The percentages are even worse in the senate.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has defended the adjournment by saying that lawmakers can always be recalled to Washington “if there is a need to do so.” Mrs. Pelosi, the need is already here. The time is now and your duty is clear. If Congress adjourns now it will be the most irresponsible action by a politician since Nero fiddled through the burning of Rome.
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(This is the time when as democrates we need to show our good judgement and not rush to a decision that may take a few more days or longer ... to thoughtful, practically and ethically put together a package that does not reward those who created this economic crisis. We need to resolve this crisis in a way that supports the majority of this country...the lower and middle class... whose sweat and tears and hard work bring this country the hard work and labor which creates its economic wealth.
Please do not rush to a decision and regret it like we did the Iraq War! Stop responding to the fear being used to manipulated a quick decision! What is being covered up in these quick decisions will come to haunt us just like the Iraq war! Don't buy into this again! We are not that stupid!
We need to uncover, face and resolve the facts....and create a practical and ethical solution for this country. We cannot afford to reward unethical and corrupt behavior. This uncontrolled greed and corruption that has been driving our economy will be our Country's undoing if we don't stop it in its tracks once and for all!) Best, Diana
John McCain Not ready to debate, not ready to lead.
This is a critical juncture for our nation and it is fair to expect those individuals who intend to hold the office of the president be ready to discuss their position with the American people. I suspect and do believe that the president should be expected to handle multiple tasks simultaneously. If Senator John McCain, is not ready to debate this debacle with Senator Barack Obama then he is not ready to lead. This is an opportunity for John McCain to prove that he is ready to lead this nation, that mean showing up to address the American people on critical issues.
You can't just shut down something so critically important to America because a major crisis has occurred. Look for the McBush camp to start to slander Barack as “Wanting to win more then wanting to solve the economic crisis”. McCain is just using this issue as an excuse to avoid being held Accountable for the Misfeasance and Malfeasance of the Republican Party. It seems to me that the Republicans want to capitalize on our pain by pruchasing our properities for pennies on the dollars without helping home owner and I am saying hell no. Sorry, I am just so angry that it is making me sick.
I would like to call for all of us, especially the evangelical Christians to pray for our nation, and Senator Barack Obama. I know he is a Christian and an honest man. I am sorry but I don't believe Bush, they lied to go to war, and I think they are lying right now.
Lately, there's been a lot of talk in the media about how Obama needs to show his foreign policy credentials. I actually think he really needs to do one thing, he has to make McCain state unequivocally that the Iraq war was a good idea and that it was worth the lives and money. Just like "the fundamentals of the economy are strong," when backed into a corner, he must take a stand one way or another on the issue of Iraq.
McCain will constantly raise the issue of the surge, which would not have been an issue had we not gone to war anyway. But, really, looking at it, without the war, we would have at least an extra trillion dollars to spend. Trouble is, the cost really should not have been as high, if we had not used ultra-expensive contractors that were making some people very rich. Worst of all, we had a tax cut on the rich and out of control spending in the government.
This election is really about whether or not change is possible under our present government. All of the corruption and fraud that came before W Bush crippled our system. When W took over, democracy went into a coma that has lasted 8 years. The changes he made to the executive branch with no checks and balances on his power, and all of this criminality sanctioned by his lackeys on the Supreme Court, will either be reversed, permanently, by Barack Obama, or the executive branch will have been usurped by the worst criminals in our country.
McCain has been talking of seeking to have Dick Cheney serve in some capacity in his administration. Cheney is the true architect of the "Unitary Executive", the presidency with no morality, no rule of law, no brake on its capacity to bankrupt the treasury and ship its citizens off to die in senseless wars.
I believe more and more that we are in an existential conflict. Our democracy which has been ours for centuries is failing, the global financial system is on the brink of collapse, but even worse, the entire planet is falling apart. By the most conservative estimates, 60% of the rainforests, the lungs of creation, are gone. An amount of ice the size of the United States one mile thick has shattered and melted away. From a third to maybe half of all species of animal and plant have become extinct. To rational humans, the time to act is upon us, but still we hear the putrid voices of those who call climate change a hoax, and mentally impotent drunks like W who preach that we must study the problem for many more decades before we act.
Barack Obama means much more than any single thing he is, or represents. We have never before been in this much chaos and crisis. To vote for McCain is truly the equivalent of placing a gun against your temple and pulling the trigger.
When Refusing to Kill Has a Higher Sentence Than Murder
9-20-08
by Ann Wright
Ann Wright is a retired US Army Reserves colonel with 29 years of military service. She also was a US diplomat who served in Nicaragua, Grenada, Somalia, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Sierra Leone, Micronesia and Mongolia. She was on the small team that reopened the US Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan, in December 2001. She resigned from the US diplomatic corps in March 2003 in opposition to the Bush administration's decision to invade and occupy Iraq. She is the co-author of "Dissent: Voices of Conscience," profiles of government insiders who have spoken and acted on their concerns of their governments' policies.
http://www.truthout.org/article/when-refusing-kill-has-a-higher-sentence-than-murder
Meanwhile:
Iraq was the "right thing to do" after the Saudi's attacked the Twin Towers and the Pentagon. How do we know this isn't a red herring as well?
Congress was goaded into making a hasty decision with little or no oversight and look where it got us-- a trillion dollars more in debt, lost liberties, a false declaration of victory when Iraq isn't stable and other countries are being attacked daily and finger pointing at the MOC who voted for or against the war and its' funding.
Now the White House is asking for a 700B dollar bailout of businesses who were enabled in their deceptive lending practices by deregulation. They want this without oversight, without transparency, a bail out for foreign banks and without one thing being done for the majority of homeowners who lost their homes to foreclosure.
As far as I'm concerned the foreign investors knew what they were getting into. The stockmarket is a gamble. Investing is a gamble. Why should only hardworking Americans be the ones to pay back the ultra rich of the world?
And instead of making this an executive order, the White House has chosen again to lay it in the lap of a congress with a Democratic majority. Why? So in the future elections the Republicans can point to Democrats and say "They did it"?
I don't agree with his politics but even Ron Paul says this bailout is the wrong thing to do. I think he's right on target thsi time.
Wait a minute. Think before you demand action.
I object to the $700 billion bailout of the morgage industry. It's simply REWARDING crooked, lousy managers, who have enormous salaries far higher than average Americans. This is TAXPAYERS money.
The Bush Administration continues to bleed billions each week on the illegal Iraq war, to which I also object. Republicans have driven TAXPAYERS debt to trillions of dollars. Our grandchildren will pay for it.
At this rate, the United State of America will be owned by the Chinese government.
