Dust Atop The Mountain
Topic: Iraq
THE CIA AND THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION
CLEARLY KNEW THROUGH IRAQ'S OWN FOREIGN MINISTER THAT
SADDAM HUSSEIN DID NOT POSSES WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION

Wow, all this on NBC Nightly News! What's next, reporting on the Downing Street Memos? How about reporting on "The Project for a New American Century?" Wouldn't that be something? They could highlight the stated motivations for war by the senior members of this administration years before 9/11. Maybe they could interview the men and women who were on the ground in Iraq in 1991 and ask them if they saw thousands of tons of weapons being destroyed? As part of the report they could go back and interview the U.N. weapons inspectors who, despite surprise inspections, found nothing.

Who knows, maybe they could even report on the debilitating sanctions that crippled Iraq for 12 years. They could report on how those sanctions rendered the Iraqi government powerless to even feed their own people. Hey, they could even do an entire expose on how our government imposed a no-fly zone on the skies directly above Iraqi soil and how Iraq wasn't even a threat to countries directly abutting it.

But the truth is that this NBC report is but particles of dust atop the overwhelming mountain of evidence that is already available for any thinking person to conclude that WE WERE AND CONTINUE TO BE LIED TO BY OUR GOVERNMENT!

Glutton for Punishment
Topic: State Of The Union
Even though Feingold's call to censure the liar-and-thief Bush doesn't have a spit ball's chance in hell, I figured we should give the Visigoths guarding the gate the message that we've had enough. When you sign the petition try something like,

"Hypocrisy destroys political parties.
Clinton broke the law and there were consequences
and Bush has broken the law and there have been none.
Patriots put their country before their party."

Please sign the petition to,

Censure
(then Impeach, Convict and Imprison in Guantanamo - it would be nice)
the deceiver, liar, criminal and terrorist,
George W. Bush

I did.

A Country In Need...
Topic: State Of The Union
Let me be honest with you, I only vote for Democrats because the alternative is well, stupid. Don't get me wrong though, some of the Dems possess just slightly more brain cells then the ding-a-lings of the goose stepping persuasion. Take this censure motion by Russ Feingold. At the present moment Russ is the closest thing to a Democrat that I can stomach right now but the idea that your going to get any type of censure motion passed in the barbarian controlled Senate is flippin nuts! Even when it has become readily apparent to anyone with eyeballs that Bush is a conservative-in-name only, the cons still love him. They will support him long after he mounts Condi on the podium during the state of the union and they'll still over shine that spot on their car where they put their ass-lickin Bush sticker.

But the problem isn't that Feingold is a do-do, the problem is the Democrats that condemn him. The Repubs win with guys like Bush because believe it or not in the ears of the American people they talk a better game than the Dems. The average American can't even spell "censure" no less have any idea what it is but that doesn't mean that the truth underlying the proposition can go unspoken without notice. The American people want to hear a firm position. Dems attacking Feingold is yet another clear failure that should have been a major victory. A strong liberal Dem stands up and the capitulators put their tail between their legs, wet their pants and bark at the smart dog. They did the same thing to Murtha.

I got news for those Dems that "expect" support from the American people, you're not going to get our votes by default. Just because the Repubs are destroying this country doesn't mean that the average Joe is going to give the Dems the same opportunity. We're not going to sit around and wait for you to grow a backbone. The Dems are only going to get so many chances to look like pussies before they're equated with cowardice. In the minds of many that threshold has already been surpassed.

Let's face the scary proposition that it is looking more and more like the Repubs are going to be the ones running this country for the foreseeable future DESPITE their massive failures. The reason is clear. Dems have not offered a concise and opposing voice to those presently bankrupting our country. The American people know it but they also believe that they have no where else to turn and at the moment, they may be right.

So what can we do? Besides getting involved and supporting Liberal candidates wherever they may be, my advice is to give the next Democratic politician walking down the street a swift kick in the ass to show him exactly what this country needs.

SUPPORT OUR TROOPS!
Topic: Iraq
If you're a self-confessed liberal you've heard it all before. You've been called every meaningless name in the book; "traitor," "Commie," "Unpatriotic," "Un-American," and even "bleeding-heart liberal" (like it's a bad thing).

I wish that just once I could get an honest answer from a conservative. I'd like to ask them if they ever get tired of cutting down so-called "liberal" arguments by attacking the person and not the proposition. Just once would I like an honest answer to the question of whether or not they see the blatant stupidity in using personal attacks against arguments that they do not agree with because there are going to be times when doing so may be downright dangerous to their well-being. I would love to know if they can think of a time when these personal attacks just won't work because the person they'd be attacking just may be one of them. I mean guys like Pat Buchanan and Paul Craig Roberts don't agree with the majority of conservatives on the war in Iraq and they're not traitors, are they?

What about the men and women serving in our armed services? If an overwhelming number of our troops didn't support the mission would they be considered Un-American? I'm curious, would they be called pinko-commies? If 25% of them thought that we should leave Iraq right away would they be called terrorist appeasers? How about if more than half thought that we should either leave immediately or in 6 months, would conservatives attempt to shame them by trying to label them as Unpatriotic? What if almost 3 quarters of our troops believed that we should pull out of Iraq within the year? What would they call them then? Would they hang on old standbys like "traitor, commie, or an Unpatriotic bleeding heart dove" or would they get more creative and call them fools who want to make sweet homosexual love to Bin Laden while a picture of Hillary hangs on the pinko colored cave wall overlooking it all?!?

According to the results of a Le Moyne College/Zogby Poll released today, that's exactly what our troops serving in various branches of the armed forces are thinking. I'd like to see these conservative chickenhawks personally attack the soldiers of the 82nd Airborne Division.

I have just one last question for all the personally condemning conservatives out in la-la land,

"How can you support our troops
when THEY don't support the mission?"

---

For more information see,
U.S. Troops in Iraq: 72% Say End War in 2006

Our Troops Should Leave Iraq Yesterday!
Topic: Iraq
The problem that many don't seem to understand is that not only did we directly cause the chaos in Iraq by failing to fully understand that war means killing innocent people who's families and friends aren't too thrilled about the idea and are presently violently seeking retribution and justice but what most fail to understand is that our presence in Iraq IS THE PROBLEM! It is clear that we owe the Iraqi people a huge economic and moral debt but we do not need to repay them by fostering the chaos and the forces of violence and extremism. We're the "petri" in the dish on which the disease is growing. Pulling our troops out of Iraq doesn't mean that we abandon what now has become our responsibility.

Leaving Iraq means that we have to use all of the peaceful resources at our disposable to right our wrong. We could utilize the energies of our greatest minds and biggest hearts to formulate a holistic novel solution for fixing many of the problems that exist there, such as paying for the reconstruction of Iraq by empowering the Iraqi's to do it themselves and bringing in experts from countries that had nothing to do with its present destruction and chaos. That would be a good first step and just 1 small piece of the puzzle. The U.S. could strengthen the UN as an institution so that it could provide non-profit humanitarian relief to the country. We could work to fight the corruption, greed and power lust that is not only responsible for the problems in our own country but also the reasons for the continuation of Iraqi sectarian violence. We could work through groups that already exist around the world whose goal would be not to further their own self-interest but to help the Iraqis to have a little dignity and self-determination. We could step aside and logistically and financially support the operations of a massive worldwide humanitarian mission to Iraq.

This is what I mean when I say our troops should leave Iraq yesterday.

We could help the Iraqi's in the U.S. by actively helping them claim their need for justice against the political masters that brought this scourge upon them. We could castrate those forces in our country that believe violence is always the simple answer by educating our population to understand that more patient alternatives exist to solve world problems that while not as glamorous as the "Mother Of All Bombs" is sustainable and uniquely human. In the same vain we could work towards castrating the forces of the "big-dick" military-industrial boys who's only success at solving world problems has been to fuck-up things around the globe. Or we could just stick with what we know and send troops and drop bombs on innocents everywhere in the world where we see a problem and hope and pray for a different outcome. But that I believe is the definition of insanity.

The Loaded Gun...
Topic: Hopefully Humorous

As my father would say,
"That's not nice...
it's true but it's not nice."

(Thanks Brian, I always knew you had latent Republican leanings.
Ewwwwww!
That's just so unnatural!)

How You Spell Victory...
Topic: State Of The Union
The Indy Voice has linked to articles by the conservative Paul Craig Roberts in the past but this one is really eye opening, Nuking the Economy.

It is time for liberals to grab the mantle of immigration policy reform. Liberals need to communicate to people that the policies of the Bush administration effectively reward the greed of the governments of other nations who starve their people to the point that the backbone of their societies must escape to manual labor jobs in the U.S. to the detriment of the U.S. worker, the economy and cause harm to the ability of our government to provide the resources and services that Americans have come to take for granted.

Liberals have to ask themselves, what is the true value of the rule of law when illegal immigration is met with a yawn? We DO NOT have to go to the extreme of building a wall across the borders of the southern U.S., which would be cost prohibitive, isolationist, incite more racism, ensure indefinite future conflict and would basically be a complete logistical failure but our government needs to apply REAL (financial, political, etc.) pressure on the governments of other countries who, for too long, have gotten away with using our country as a relief valve so that their people don't reach the tipping point of revolution.

This country is facing a major problem which is easily observable by anyone with a 5th grade economics lesson on the effects of supply and demand. A major thrust of the problem comes from the illegal supply of labor to employers in this country who have effectively outsourced (or in this case, "insourced") labor to foreign countries by employing the illegal emigrants of those countries here. Employers have been able to hire on a seemingly unending supply of not only extremely cheap labor but a labor force that is completely politically and economically detached from issues like workers rights, the right to organize and worker's safety and doesn't have to pay into systems that depend on collective efficiencies like Worker's Compensation, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, the country's infrastructure and generally speaking, most taxes. Almost any employer that can get away with hiring this type of laborer will and will do so in place of the American worker who won't, shouldn't and can't financially and physically afford to.

Consider just some of the values that liberals hold dear, like worker and human rights and how advocating a policy which contradicts the Bush administration's would allow them to be upheld. Advocating illegal immigration reform would be tantamount to a Scrabble triple word score for Victory - with the victors being our way of life, our values and forcing the governments of other countries to work on behalf of their people instead of forcing them to escape to the U.S. To continue the present policy of indifference would be to forget the human, civil and workers rights reasons why people are leaving their native countries to work here and it would continue to ignore the tangible political and economic implications that it has on the people that already live and work here.

Globalization, unregulated free markets and the resulting outsourcing of labor to foreign markets combined with the "insourcing" of labor to illegal immigrants are a recipe for disaster and are the causes of the problems that Mr. Roberts describes. These problems are not going to go away anytime soon and they'll never go away if future administrations continue to follow the same failed policies.

In difference, Hope
Topic: State Of The Union
In this political atmosphere I have adopted a new outlook and policy of working on those things that I can influence.

I will no longer speak of the damages that are being wrought on this country at the hands of the Republicans and fail to mention those who let it happen. I will no longer speak of the President's latest ideological nomination to the Supreme Court without highlighting how many of those that should are not working on stopping it. From now on I am on a mission to expose the accomplices and capitulators that are in positions to stop these things from happening but sit idly by and do nothing. I long for the day when the truly strong and courageous people of substance and energy can rise to the top and begin to take action.

I realize that most of the time my comments will most likely never extend further than this blog, after all it is an election year and we do have to restore these ball-less wonders to office, but I will not be deterred. The status quo isn't working and I am liberal enough to admit it, announce the problem so that others may know, analyze it and start working on a solution to fix it.

In this instance I already have and this is my conclusion,

I call upon my liberal brethren; those people who value and are willing to fight for human rights, workers rights and civil rights, those who's political philosophy's draw them to the conclusion that those who would seek to uphold the traditions of the present framework are fools for expecting a different result from the same tired actions, people who follow the path of non-violence and diplomacy at all costs, appreciate and use our right to free speech, free press and religion, those who believe that human beings are not a unit of measurement to be analyzed in some cruel economic system, those who believe in the rule of law, that human beings can transcend dogma through rational God giving thought and especially those who welcome and embrace the greatness of the human race in all its different colors, sizes, religions and cultures and who recognize that just merely tolerating one another often is not enough to keep tensions from spilling over into violence, that empathy, respect and compassion should be the ultimate goal of every rational human being for the benefit of each other, all other living beings and the planet.

Those of you with this type of courage and spirit
know who you are and I respectfully
ask that you focus your attentions
where you can make the most difference.

OUST THE CAPITULATORS!!!
Mood:  don't ask
Topic: Retort
Below is a response to Sen. John Kerry latest e-mail message (below):

Senator Kerry,

Cut the horse shit! What you did was too little, too late and frankly me and I suspect millions of people like me have had enough. I hereby pledge to NEVER AGAIN support any Democrat who doesn't represent my values, which include having the gonads to stick up for what you believe. So you can tell your capitulating buddies that since I have absolutely no influence with any Republican, I'm going to be knocking down the doors of the Democrats and with some help we’re gonna be booting the chaff from the Democratic party, which while it is extremely weak, won't even do those things that they can to show the rest of the country that the have the courage of their convictions!

Don't you guys get it? The reason you are where you are, is DIRECTLY due to the fact that when pressured you grab onto “moderation,” every single time. There is grey in the world but you guys never seem to see the black and white. Alito was a clear example of black and white and yet again Democrats clung to “moderation” and this country received something it never asked for and the Dems, your fellow Senators, hustled it along! You just handed what should have been a clear liberal victory to the conservatives and to them it's freaking Christmas and the “thank you” cards for the gift wrapping are being written out to the offices of Senators like Landrieu and Lieberman!

I'm sorry Mr. Kerry but I will not rejoice in yet another MAJOR LOSS by the Democrats! I will not attempt to find the positive again in a loss for the country. I will not rationalize cowardice. I will no longer accept politics as usual and I certainly will not accept some capitulating Senator trying to tell me that they either had to vote against what was right to save their own ass or that there is some light in this utterly disturbing ass-trouncing by the conservatives who, by the way, are rapidly expediting the deterioration of the American way of life. There is no reason for celebration because there is something profoundly wrong with this party Sir.

I hope that you convey my sentiments to those cowardly members of your party so that they know exactly what to expect when the liberal and courageous half of the Democratic party has enough and starts booting out the moderate, cowardly, do nothings. You can’t expect to gain more political power to set this country on a good course by sitting back and waiting for the Republicans to self-destruct when their fates and ours are intertwined.

Honestly, I'd rather have a Republican in office who I know is going to fuck up this country, than a Democrat who talks like they represent my values and ideals and only acts when it comes to saving their own ass!

Mr. Kerry, I ask you, what is the fate of a party who has neither the integrity nor the moral courage to do the right thing? I don’t know the answer but we’ll see where the Republican Party winds up. I just hope that in the Democrats quest for political power they don’t continue to follow the same example.

Spread the word.

Thanks,

The Indy Voice
One pissed-off Liberal

On 1/31/06, John Kerry wrote:

Dear The Indy Voice,

Yesterday, 25 Democratic Senators joined our effort to filibuster the Alito nomination -- that's more votes to filibuster the Alito nomination than there were votes against Justice Roberts' nomination itself just a few months ago.
This morning, 42 Senators voted against Alito's nomination. That's the highest number of votes against any Supreme Court nominee since Clarence Thomas in 1991.

It's hard to lose -- but it's important to fight for what we believe in. I want to thank the hundreds of thousands of you who signed our petitions, called your senators, wrote letters to the editor and, most important, refused to stand silent while President Bush worked to pack the highest court in the land with far right ideologues. We fought a fight that needed fighting.
We made sure the nation knew the truth about the Alito nomination. We made sure America heard how a right wing ideological coup sandbagged Harriet Miers' nomination and replaced her with Judge Alito. No one will be able to say, in five to ten years, that he or she is surprised by the decisions Judge Alito makes from the bench. People who believe in privacy rights, who fight for the rights of the most disadvantaged, who believe in balancing the power between the President and Congress had to take a stand.

We also made it clear to the Bush administration that no matter what they throw at us in 2006 -- whether it's extreme nominees, special interest giveaways, shortsighted policy or Swift Boat-style attacks against Democratic candidates -- we will never surrender. We will always fight back.

Now, we must be clear about something else. Winning the 2006 congressional elections is the only way to change the dangerous path George W. Bush has put us on. We need to defeat those Republicans who have overlooked this administration's incompetence, turned a blind eye to its failures, and lent a helping hand to its dangerous ideology.

Together, we have to act to make sure 2006 is the year Americans, led by Democrats, stand up to incompetence, cronyism and corruption, take back Congress, and get our nation moving in the right direction again.

I look forward to fighting alongside you.

Sincerely,
John Kerry

Message to Dems: GROW A SPINE!
Mood:  irritated
Topic: State Of The Union
Below you will find a petition on John Kerry's website. Please fill it out and submit it.

Tell the Democrats that we the people have had enough of their complacency in the face of criminal, unconstitutional, unAmerican and inhuman behavior. Tell them that we've had enough of the ideologues who stand to drive this great country back into the barbarism of the middle ages. Tell the Democrats that you DO NOT believe that the President should have the powers of a King.

Tell the Democrats that unless they do your bidding and stop trying to cover their own ass you are NOT going to contribute 1 dime to their party, nor are you going to vote for another Democrat until they stand up and fight the corporate/fundamentalist/militaristic/individualistic/short-sighted/manipulating and exploiting Republicans who have for the past 40 years been ruining the middle class, driving people further into despair and poverty through their myopic policies, creating a system of black and white and more and more punishment even as the world plainly sees that their way DOESN'T work.

Tell them that you are not going to sit idly by and watch as these wealthy, white, angry, men, destroy the country that you love and corrupt and make ugly the ideals of and everything that this country attempts to stand for.

TELL THE DEMOCRATS TO GROW A SPINE!