How Many More Scandals in Reserve?

How Many More Scandals in Reserve?

Last week's events seemed at first blush a very good thing that were long overdue. George W. "War Criminal" Bush had been PROVEN and EXPOSED as the liar he is. His talk of World War III being at hand and that we have Iran to blame was shown to be pure fabrication. We appeared to have the smoking gun of his duplicitous actions. He knowingly lied in an attempt to start another pre-emptive war. This remained the top news story for no more than a single news cycle. Why? The war cabal had a scandal in reserve to divert attention from the War Criminal's blatant lying. Before the weekend news cycle, all eyes and ears had been diverted to the destroyed torture tapes.

Yes, torture is a bad thing, but any rational, thinking and informed person already knew torture was being committed in our names. These tapes were not destroyed because they would change anyone's mind. Their destruction was a calculated action. The destruction was over two years ago. The war cabal put their destruction in their reserve of distractions. Whenever the momentum is swinging to bringing Bush and company to account, there is convenient diversion. I am forced to wonder how many more of these scandals lie dormant for the war cabal to divert the American public from the real criminals.

This is the same type of lie that got us into Iraq. Over a million innocent lives lost—we must leave as soon as possible. It is long past time to impeach, convict and remove from office both Bush and Cheney. Once that is accomplished, it is our duty as members of the human race to make sure they are tried as the war criminals they have been exposed. We must not let a "sound bite" mentality divert us from this. If we do allow this to work, there is no telling how many more diversions are being kept in reserve.


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JFK and Thanksgiving: 44 Years Later

JFK and Thanksgiving: 44 Years Later

Thanksgiving this year falls on the anniversary of the assassination John Fitzgerald Kennedy. It was forty-four years ago in Dallas that the direction of this country was irrevocably changed. Changed for the worse. There have been brief periods of hope only to have the downward spiral continue in even steeper rushes to oblivion.

The details of those intervening years matter little. Discussions about those details only serve as a distraction about the real issues of the day. The vast majority of Americans will spend the next two days concerned about gluttony and greed, and the powers in charge couldn't be more delighted. We were running "duck and cover" drills in the years around JFK's killing. Today we have a corrupt war criminal playing games with nuclear war to further line the pockets of the rich. We seem to be running headlong and willingly to World War III.

Three instances of this insanity: One—we invaded a sovereign nation under false pretensions. Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction and had no connection with the 9/11 attacks. Two—the same rhetoric is being used about Iran. Diplomacy isn't even considered an option. Three—"one of our strongest allies in the War on Terror" is a military fascist regime with known and flaunted nuclear capability. This is Pakistan for those not paying attention.

Dissent is now considered unpatriotic and treasonous. Last week on "Fox and Friends" it was openly suggested that the next time members of Code Pink dared to speak out or even show passive silent dissent that "a Tazing would be in order" and "when will these women learn no one cares what they think." I find myself feeling just as helpless about the situation we are in today as I felt about the killing of JFK then.

Code Pink and those on the front line of dissent are about the only things I can feel thankful. I find the majority of politicians, both Republicans and Democrats, to be responsive only to dollars not to the will of the people. I hold little hope that by next Thanksgiving there will be any drastic improvement and have genuine fears of an openly fascist America and/or World War III being fought. Part of being a Proud Liberal is a general optimism that I no longer have the strength to feel. As a small voice in this mess, I will repeat the five positive steps I suggested in my last Blog entry.

1. – Never refer to the Bush administration with deference. They are war criminals and need to be referred to as such.

2. – Resist at all opportunities the occupation of Iraq. Tell your local Congress critters that their continued support for the occupation makes them accomplices in murder. By any legal definition of murder, accomplices are just as guilty as the main perpetrators.

3. – When engaging in discussion with the opposition, do NOT let them define the parameters and terms of the discussion. Remember the great lesson of Orwell's 1984 was that whoever defines the language has already won the argument.

4. – Wear a black armband of mourning. This is especially effective as people are always sympathetic and solicitous. When they ask what or whom you are in mourning for respond, "Are you sure you want to know?" Most will say of course and respond that you are mourning the Constitution and the rule of law; that both are in their death throes because of the criminals currently in charge.

5. – Insist that the best candidate be the one you support not just the one that can win. Elections are not horse races and the bandwagon effect has been a determent to the entire process. Remember the members of Democratic Leadership Conference (DLC) are just Republicans that have labeled themselves Democrats. The 40 percent that voted for McGovern were vindicated in the end when Nixon was finally caught.

These might not accomplish anything. To do nothing is tacit approval of the war crimes being committed in our names. We as patriotic Americans can not remain silent or complacent unless we want to become the "new Germans" of the twenty-first century.


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(They're Still) Running the World (on the) Eve of Destruction For What It's Worth

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JUST SICK AND TIRED OF BEING SICK AND TIRED

JUST SICK AND TIRED OF BEING SICK AND TIRED

I have been neglecting to stay current on my two blogs, at first this was because of a physical complaint of having a case of spring/summer flu. As is often the case with me a bad illness can send me into a deep funk, what is now called a depression. Usually anger and hard work will get me out this depression. The unfortunate thing was the timing of this depression, as it coincided with the caving of the Democrats to Bush's demand for a military spending bill with no conditions or oversights.

Barack and Hillary only voted against the bill after its passage was assured. The fix was in and the moneymakers are still making it hand over fist. The contractors of death and destruction continue to make magnitudes of money more than the average grunt on the front line. The net effect of the so-called surge was to give the Iraqis more targets to shoot and bomb. They have taken advantage of this to kill record numbers of American service men. It is time to admit that we have reached the stage where Bush can longer have his back door draft. Whenever someone tries to say the only way to support the troops is to get them the hell out of harm's way the warmongers answer that the troops knew the risks before signing up. What a load of crap. The average reservist and National Guard had no idea they were going to have extended and multiple tours in a war zone where they are only one of two things: target or killer.

After Nixon started his so-called Vietnamization of the Vietnam War, one the measures taken to deflect criticism of the death toll were to make sure that a tour in Vietnam was voluntary. It is past time to do the same in Iraq. Many soldiers and Marines say they don't need mothers deciding whether they should be in the war zone. So the American thing to do is give them the free un-coerced choice of deployment or not. To do anything less is to become accomplices in forcing people to kill or be killed without their consent. Bush and Cheney lied to get us into this war and by legal definition; the deaths that have occurred are murder. Should we stand by as a population and country and say nothing? NO! Doing so only makes us accomplices in murder.

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Living Blue in a Red State Part 2

Living Blue in a Red State Part 2

I saw the following bumper sticker the other day that brought on an instant headache:

I Support President Bush and Our Troops

It is only in a state like Arizona where I live that this bumper sticker would be displayed. The person driving the SUV with the sticker is blind to the impossibility of the statement. Shrub with his veto of the spending bill has proven that he only supports a continuation of the immoral and illegal Iraqi War. He seems to believe his own spin-doctors, Support the War, Support the Troops. So does the person displaying this bumper sticker. These sycophants are incapable of independent rational thought.

Support of this war is the opposite of supporting our troops. Supporting this war will only lead to more deaths and maiming of our troops that are senseless. These numbers are miniscule compared to the hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians that have died and the many more hundreds of thousands that have been crippled, left homeless or left Iraq. Shrub is responsible for bombing Iraq back to the 19th century. HE LIED AND PEOPLE DIED. By any legal definition, this is MURDER. Anyone who aids and abets a murderer is also a murderer. It is past the time to say this is just politics. This is criminal and needs to end.

Fund the troops and stop funding the war, anything else is just a continuation of the criminal enterprise known as the Iraqi War. This is NOT a war on terrorism; it is a terrorist attack on the Iraqi people. Impeaching Bush and Cheney is not enough; they must be convicted, removed from office and then prosecuted criminally. Then the twenty some percent of Americans that are blind sycophants to the Republicans and NeoCons can get back to politics instead of murder.


Link to Original Living Blue in a Red State

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IN PLAIN SIGHT:ALTERNATE WAYS TO FUND THE WAR

IN PLAIN SIGHT:ALTERNATE WAYS TO FUND THE WAR

The House of Representatives passed a funding bill for the Iraqi War that included a timetable for withdrawal yesterday. Bush announced that any such legislation would be vetoed because he felt including a timetable is anti troop. He still suffers from the delusion that being against the war is being against the troops. He and his minions have repeatedly stated that refusing to provide the additional funding for the war is tantamount to refusing to support the troops; that any talk of withdrawal is demoralizing to the troops; that any anti-war stance is unpatriotic. Experience has shown that no amount of rational and reasoned discussion can reverse these opinions.

There seems to be a solution to this dilemma in plain sight. We now know that a major demoralizer for the troops in theater is the civilian contractors that have been used in unprecedented numbers during this invasion and occupation. They are not subject to the Military Code of Justice as are members of the armed forces. They are paid a magnitude more than are the regular troops. They decide when and if they wish to serve additional tours. For the administration, there are a number of advantages; causalities are hidden, there is no mechanism of oversight, political patronage can be doled out in the form of secret no-bid contracts.

I wonder why there has not been a proposal to fully fund and support our troops but pull the funding for the civilian contractors. Congress could simply limit money spent in Iraq to the equipping, training, supplying and paying members of the military. Funds for the medical and veterans' benefits should be fully funded. They could put a stop to the profiteering that has been an integral part of this fiasco from the beginning. The administration would not be able to make their political hay out of not supporting the troops. They would be forced to admit to the fact that our military prowess has deteriorated so badly that further persecution of the war would be impossible without the contractors. They would have difficulty explaining why funding just the troops would be far more inexpensive than continuing with the status quo.

Therefore, there exists a solution in plain sight if only we as a democracy have the courage to admit its existence.

There is But One Top Priority

There is But One Top Priority

If I were to list the top 100 things that need doing in America, numbers 1 to 90 would all be the same: GET US OUT OF IRAQ Anything beyond this pales in comparison. The continued loss of life and the extreme human suffering is intolerable. No amount of "surge" will lessen the loss of life or human suffering. We as a country need to have the courage to admit that we are the cause not the solution to the problem. We as a country need to have the courage to admit that we cannot win someone else's civil war. We as a country need to have the courage to admit that we only support Democracies if they are being run "our way." We as a country need to have the courage to admit that we are the biggest hypocrites of modern times.

Bush continues to deny the reality that this immoral, ill advised and illegal war cannot be salvaged. He talks about supporting the only Democracy in the area. The fact is this: Iran's government is far more democratic than Iraq's. Yes, Iraq had elections but no candidate could propose what the vast majority (over 90%) of Iraqis wanted and continue to want; the complete withdrawal of foreign forces from Iraq. Hardliners like Iran's current President were elected as a response to our invasion in Iraq, any number of more moderate candidates in Iran lost the election because they did not oppose the invasion as overtly. Iran's candidates were free to advocate any point of view without interference from any foreign governments; the same cannot be said for Iraq.

The parallels to the Vietnam War cannot be ignored, except that the moral justifications for our involvement in Vietnam far out weighed those in Iraq. The most glaring of these is the fact that one side (the South) of a continuing civil war wanted our participation, in Iraq there was no civil war until the invasion and occupation. On December 31, 1970, the U.S. Congress repealed the entirely fictitious Gulf of Tonkin resolution, which in 1964 authorized a dramatic increase in U.S. military involvement in Vietnam in response to an attack on U.S. forces that later turned out to not have happened. Why cannot the current Congress step up to the bat and do the same with the Congressional resolution that supposedly gave Bush the power to invade Iraq? The basis for that resolution was even more false than the Gulf of Tonkin resolution. No more "but look at how many Democrats voted for it," should even be allowed. Continuing two wrongs still does not make a thing right.

The posturing that is occurring between potential Presidential candidates is repugnant. McCain's argument that withdrawal is wrong because it would admit defeat is right from one point of view; defeat is inevitable because victory is impossible. Senator Clinton's proposed troop level cap is a band-aid on a gushing mortal wound. There are over a hundred civilian deaths acknowledged on a daily basis. U.S. military deaths are severely under reported. Contractors' lives are just as valuable as soldiers are and their deaths are just as much a military death as a soldier's.

We must first GET OUT OF IRAQ. We fail as human beings and Americans doing anything less. Only after this is done is it worth discussing items 91 through 100 on my list.