There is one thing most Americans identify with and take pride in, they believe in freedom and justice, under a rule of law that is fair to all. The idea that is America allows anyone to define themselves as they see fit. They are free to practice and preach their concept of life to others in the marketplace of ideas. As long as you follow the laws of the land, you have nothing to fear but fear itself. If your version of the "idea" takes hold among the consensus, so be it.
Barack Obama should pick Oprah Winfrey for his running mate. She is a person of exceptionally good judgment and integrity, marketing savvy, charisma, and accomplishment. Let's begin with good judgment. The day after Colin Powell made his Feb 5th, 2003 UN presentation, making the case for war that the rest of the media was praising, Oprah had the exceptionally good judgment to host a two day anti-war show that was so controversial attempts were made to take it off the air.
Below is a repost of an entry on my blog, returngood.com, which focuses on Christian nonviolence. I also posted over at Street Prophets. Feel free to stop in.
Everyone knows that war in general and the Iraq war specifically has meant big money for defense contractors, but a new congressional report puts it in stark relief:
I'm still at the Joint Readiness Training Center at Fort Polk, Louisiana. We're finishing up and getting ready to head back to Fort Bragg in the next few days.
I have posed this question on nearly every blog know to the world wide web. I have come to feel as if I am asking for seeds to grow a hundred dollar bill tree in my back yard. Is it really that hard? Follow me--->
John McCain, married to a filthy-rich heiress, a guy who owns like eleven houses throughout the world and doesn't pay taxes on them, has decided that His Big Thing is that he's gonna spend OUR money to "win" in Iraq.
Republican John McCain, addressing fellow veterans of foreign wars in Orlando today, is telling them that both he and Democratic rival Barack Obama plan to bring U.S. forces home from the war in Iraq - "the great difference is that I intend to win it first.''
Let's see, the world's lone superpower, the country that spends 50% of the world's military budgets combined, has just spent more years trying to "win" in Iraq than it took to win World War Two.
But McCain can do it. He knows he can do it. The different will be "HIM" at the helm! What kind of monumental, psychopathically monstrous EGO does this man have?
After watching the Forum, I had the impression that McCain't was toooo sharp. I was not surprised to learn that there had been some "Cracks in the Cone of Silence" as the NYT is reporting this morning. This other "Cone of Silence" is a more pressing situation to me.
When the U.S. military death toll in Iraq dropped to 13 last month it received wide attention. But now, midway through August, the toll this month has already topped the July rate. Meanwhile, two more Iraq vets have killed themselves here at home.
A U.S. marine killed by gunmen in Fallujah west of Baghdad on Thursday became the 15th American to die in August. A troubling seven had died in noncombat incidents. The 15 tally tops July by two.
Imagine, if you will, giving the best years of your youth to your government, fighting for your life overseas, and seeing friends and enemies die on what seems like a daily basis. When your responsibilities end, you return home to your small midwestern town, only to find out that no one can give you a job - the economy is trashed, they have nothing to offer.
A friend, however, says that he's heard there are jobs in California.
You take the majority of what is left of your savings and your money from the government and buy a pickup that can make it across a few states without breaking down. When you make it out to California with a few hundred dollars to your name, you find you cannot afford a permanent place to live.
Then you find out that no one's willing to give you a job without a permanent address to your name.
Soon, you're living out of the only asset you have to your name - your truck.
It's not long before you have to sell your truck, however, just so you have money for food.
Now, you're one of a growing number in this country: 20-some year old homeless Iraqi veterans.
You, whose forebodings have been all fulfilled,
You who have heard the bell, seen the boy stand
Holding the flimsy message in his hand
While through your heart the fiery question thrilled
"Wounded or killed, which, which?"--and it was "Killed--"
And in a kind of trance have read it, numb
But conscious that the dreaded hour was come,
No dream this dream wherewith your blood was chilled--
Oh brothers in calamity, unknown
Companions in the order of black loss,
Lift up your hearts, for your are not alone.
Yesterday at the Aspen Institute, John McCain made another "oops," as he called the Georgia v. Russia conflict the "first probably serious crisis internationally since the end of the Cold War."
As well as the Georgians recently leaving for obvious reasons what is happening with the rest of the Coalition of the willing.
In UK Daily Telegraph (right wing and with good links to Military establishment) is running a story with saying UK forces will be down from 4,500 to a "few hundred" by mid 2009.
I saw this video on YouTube, it got sent to me through The Tubes on MySpace, it's pretty amazing. This guy seems to embody all of the wingnuts who we see comments from on Internet boards (other than this one). I didn't think they were real people, because you never see them in real life, or at least I don't living in Manhattan. This video will show you why they are better off staying in their anonymous posting bunkers - this guy gets absolutely pwned, not so much by Sheehan, but by the vets at the event...
Get your popcorn out and enjoy the carnage below the fold...
Tonight hearts are breaking for the loss of Cpl. Adam T. McKiski, 21, of Cherry Valley, Ill. and of Cpl. Stewart S. Trejo, 25, of Whitefish, Mont., two Marines killed just days ago in a accident involving their vehicle.
Please join me in remembering their lives and offering condolences to all those who knew and loved them and who miss them so much.
Remember the lead up to the Iraq War? The hype was thick and well orchestrated. Cheney's gal Friday, Judith Miller, was dishing his dirt in the New York Times from an anonymous source (Scooter Libby, pardoned by Bush), and he cited her articles as proof that his ballyhoo was substantiated by a venerable newspaper (no longer). The New York Times stood idly by, letting Cheney play this trick on the American public, anonomously corroborating himself via their reknown reporter (infamous now). The NY Times aided and abetted Cheney's artifice, which would unleash death and destruction on thousands, while sweetening the pot of special interests at our expense, without so much as a correction.
We're constantly barraged by the media and our more conservative Democrats (hello, Al From!) that John McCain is the serious candidate when it comes to war and Iraq and dealing with International threats. By converse, those Democrats who oppose the idiotic war in Iraq (even if they support other wars like Obama with Afghanistan) are peaceniks, doves and dirty effing hippies who should be shunned and ignored.
We never get, of course, anything empirical to back this assertion up. Not one of the chattering morons or DLC leaders can point to anything other than their own desire to blow shit up and risk other people's lives to support their theory that more wars means more serious.
In fact, the evidence seems to go against that idea. Via The Hill, it turns out that a Center for Responsive Politics analysis of donations from soldiers says Barack Obama is the choice of the people actually put into harms way.
August 13, An Undisclosed Location. Do you agree with Florida Democrat Robert Wexler and Ohio Democrat Dennis Kuchinich that Bush and Cheney should be impeached? Do you feel that the war in Iraq was conducted with the incompetence that rivals FEMA in New Orleans? Or that it was a mistake? Do you feel that rather than enhance our national security, the war - 4,000 dead, 19,000 wounded, and $1 Trillion spent, has strengthened Iran and weakened the United States? Do you feel that the Federal Emergency Management Agency, FEMA, should be an effective emergency response force, or an agency of incompetence and a gold mine of patronage? Do you believe that the Department of Justice should focus on race, religion, party and politics when hiring and firing staff and investigating and prosecuting corruption? Do you work? Do you need health care? Do you want your children to be able to get an education, then find rewarding work? Do you believe in "government of the people, by the people, and for the people?" The "DemoPunks" don't.
