From Marjorie Cohen: http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/112105Z.shtml
Rep. John Murtha's call for an end to the occupation was echoed by Larry Johnson, a former CIA expert on terrorism. Johnson wrote in the Booman Tribune Friday, "The Iraqi insurgency consists of at least 26 different groups and draws upon as many as 250,000 supporters. These groups represent a spectrum of beliefs ranging from secular nationalists to hard core jihadists. The only thing they agree on is that they hate the invader, which is us."
Last month, William E. Odom, Director of the National Security Agency under Reagan and Assistant Chief of Staff for Intelligence, penned an article on Antiwar.com called "We Should 'Cut & Run.'" He wrote, "We can't prevent a civil war by staying" in Iraq. "For those who really worry about destabilizing the region, the sensible policy is not to stay the course," according to Odom.
"The American public is way ahead of the members of Congress," Murtha said. The quagmire Bush created in Iraq is draining life from our soldiers and money from our coffers.
The United States should not simply withdraw some of its troops from Iraq. The occupation must end now.
Monday, November 21, 2005
Sunday, November 13, 2005
Bush lies about torture
So Bush states that the United States does not torture. Has anyone asked him about CIA torture prisons in Eastern Europe, or many other countries to whom we export our prisoners to be tortured on our behalf?
McCain makes well-reasoned arguments why we should forbid torture. 1. It's unreliable, rarely credible 2. It hurts/haunts the torturer more than the tortured 3. It's against American values 3. It makes us just like our current and past enemies 4. It sets us up for the same treatment in the future by different enemies. See truthout.com for his statement, and Molly Ivins points out just how tough and manly it must feel to torture powerless prisoners that our completely under your control. Wow, too bad that torture DOESN'T WORK.
My husband and I watched the 9-11 National Geographic special recently on DVD. At the end, they quote bin Laden saying, "We love death. America loves life."
Do we love war or peace? Do we love torture? If we want to be like bin Laden, we, too shall come to love violence and death.
McCain makes well-reasoned arguments why we should forbid torture. 1. It's unreliable, rarely credible 2. It hurts/haunts the torturer more than the tortured 3. It's against American values 3. It makes us just like our current and past enemies 4. It sets us up for the same treatment in the future by different enemies. See truthout.com for his statement, and Molly Ivins points out just how tough and manly it must feel to torture powerless prisoners that our completely under your control. Wow, too bad that torture DOESN'T WORK.
My husband and I watched the 9-11 National Geographic special recently on DVD. At the end, they quote bin Laden saying, "We love death. America loves life."
Do we love war or peace? Do we love torture? If we want to be like bin Laden, we, too shall come to love violence and death.
Sunday, October 23, 2005
Arnold, Bush and DeLay
So I was wrong in the post below, Arnold does have a need for money or he wouldn't have been so upset about Bush courting Californians for political donations. The current state of our state and country makes me sick. This is what I said to my friends across the nation recently:
On the political front, although I'm eagerly watching the Bush admin and the "moral" Republicans and Congress' filth rise to the surface I take no pleasure in it. It makes me sick that we've put up with this crap for years, and I'm equally disgusted with how I've begun to realize how both parties, the lobbyists, and the PACs that have proliferated in the last 5 years in Washington use division and political differences against one another to fund each other. They would all die if we actually had a unified, effective government that served the people first--they all play the same game.
Why can't we just elect efficient nerds instead of money-driven politicos? Money-driven politics. In my mind, money is not a first amendment issue (free expression). We ought to limit it or come up with a third and rational party, or a different form of governing all together. This is hardly democracy when no ones paying attention, or voting, or getting counted as a vote. And our media is only slowly gathering truth-speaking steam (and only because it's so damn hard to ignore anymore).
In California our ridiculous governor and our frightened unions have spent $ MILLIONS on advertising for single issues that shouldn't even be brought before the few voters that will turn out for it (it's a "special" election that could have been decided legislatively). It's gross to think about how that money could go to good use in our society instead--or at the very least it could stay in the hands of the families that need it (or the governor could use it to pay down our state debt that just keeps growing and growing...). We are in sorry shape.
On the political front, although I'm eagerly watching the Bush admin and the "moral" Republicans and Congress' filth rise to the surface I take no pleasure in it. It makes me sick that we've put up with this crap for years, and I'm equally disgusted with how I've begun to realize how both parties, the lobbyists, and the PACs that have proliferated in the last 5 years in Washington use division and political differences against one another to fund each other. They would all die if we actually had a unified, effective government that served the people first--they all play the same game.
Why can't we just elect efficient nerds instead of money-driven politicos? Money-driven politics. In my mind, money is not a first amendment issue (free expression). We ought to limit it or come up with a third and rational party, or a different form of governing all together. This is hardly democracy when no ones paying attention, or voting, or getting counted as a vote. And our media is only slowly gathering truth-speaking steam (and only because it's so damn hard to ignore anymore).
In California our ridiculous governor and our frightened unions have spent $ MILLIONS on advertising for single issues that shouldn't even be brought before the few voters that will turn out for it (it's a "special" election that could have been decided legislatively). It's gross to think about how that money could go to good use in our society instead--or at the very least it could stay in the hands of the families that need it (or the governor could use it to pay down our state debt that just keeps growing and growing...). We are in sorry shape.
Wednesday, September 07, 2005
Who knew, is Arnold a girly man?
So my husband's very angry that Arnold fears gay marriage enough to step out and veto the CA gay marriage bill and too chicken to tell us the real reason why, acting instead as if he's the protector of our courts' domains.
So I'm thinking I'm not angry because I simply want to know what got to Arnold to make him veto this.
Money? Doesn't need it. Power? Maybe he does have presidential ambitions, but his wife doesn't have them for him (according to her appearance on Oprah)--and everyone's got the feeling that we can't wait to have a real governor again someday soon.
Hate? Hmmm. Could he be a latent girly man? Does he actually fear girly men?
He certainly looks a lot like a buff chicken homophobe to me.
So I'm thinking I'm not angry because I simply want to know what got to Arnold to make him veto this.
Money? Doesn't need it. Power? Maybe he does have presidential ambitions, but his wife doesn't have them for him (according to her appearance on Oprah)--and everyone's got the feeling that we can't wait to have a real governor again someday soon.
Hate? Hmmm. Could he be a latent girly man? Does he actually fear girly men?
He certainly looks a lot like a buff chicken homophobe to me.
Tuesday, August 23, 2005
TV Christian discredited yet?
BLB Mat 26: "Then said Jesus unto him, Put up again thy sword into his place: for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword. "
Pat Robertson does not practice Christianity. And, he's doubly a hypocrite because he actually criticized Islam and the Koran because it can support killing...
murder is murder, Robertson.
Pat Robertson does not practice Christianity. And, he's doubly a hypocrite because he actually criticized Islam and the Koran because it can support killing...
murder is murder, Robertson.
Friday, August 05, 2005
Believe in goodness!
Oprah is a wise woman, she says, "You do not become what you want, you become what you believe."
Brilliant.
Brilliant.
Monday, July 04, 2005
The Government is killing us with mad agribusiness lobbyists
The U.S. Department of Agriculture and Agribusinesses have hamstringed our state health departments by OUTLAWING public notification of tainted meat. Federal regulations FORBID states from notifying the public with recalls, testing and labelling! OUR FOOD IS NOT PROTECTED BY OUR GOVERNMENT!
Who's looking out for you? Don't turn to our federal government first, that's for sure.
The California legislature passed a bill that allowed publicizing places that buy tainted meat. Schwarzeneger VETOED it, stating that we should work out a better deal with the government.
In January 2004 bones from a federally recalled batch of contaminated "mad cow" meat; everybody acted too late to stop a restaurant in Oakland from serving soup made with those bones. People who ingested that soup may not know they have Creutzfeldt-Jakob for years. We can thank the federal government for this risky event. Federal inspectors visited the restaurant 10 days after the recall was issued, too late to stop the soup. The state was not, is not, allowed to act alone.
**Haven't blogged in awhile--I gave birth to, and my husband and I welcomed into the world, a beautiful, loving, hungry and sometimes fussy little boy on June 17, 2005. I blog for them.
Who's looking out for you? Don't turn to our federal government first, that's for sure.
The California legislature passed a bill that allowed publicizing places that buy tainted meat. Schwarzeneger VETOED it, stating that we should work out a better deal with the government.
In January 2004 bones from a federally recalled batch of contaminated "mad cow" meat; everybody acted too late to stop a restaurant in Oakland from serving soup made with those bones. People who ingested that soup may not know they have Creutzfeldt-Jakob for years. We can thank the federal government for this risky event. Federal inspectors visited the restaurant 10 days after the recall was issued, too late to stop the soup. The state was not, is not, allowed to act alone.
**Haven't blogged in awhile--I gave birth to, and my husband and I welcomed into the world, a beautiful, loving, hungry and sometimes fussy little boy on June 17, 2005. I blog for them.
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