A Call to All Good Americans ...

[welshTerrier2]

some, blinded by the author's fading past, cannot hear the wisdom of an ally's powerful words ... and we are diminished ...

source = http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0325-20.htm

Attention please, good people! Adjust your routines and come to the aid of your country, and your children with your thoughtful patriotism. Don't just hope for impeachment, demand the resignation now of the mad hatters in the White House - George W. Bush and Richard Cheney.

Already, a large majority of you do not consider this shifty duo trustworthy. By more than two to one you disapprove of Bush's war in Iraq. Similar majorities believe this is also a President whose administrative incompetence - note the post-Katrina debacles compared to his promises last September in that devastated New Orleans - nearly matches his penchant for daily fabrications. <skip>

Repeated reports from diverse official, media and eyewitness accounts say that there is less electricity, more disease, less drinkable water, less housing, far less street security, less health care, less gasoline, fewer jobs and far more violence against civilians after the Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld invasion in March 2003 than before the sanctioned, tottering, besieged dictator, Saddam Hussein, was toppled.

With Bush's own ambassador to Iraq warning of a possible civil war and Bush's handpicked interim Iraqi prime minister, Ayad Allawi saying "We are in a terrible civil conflict now," the serial delusionists, Bush and Cheney, having lied five ways into their war, go around daily as smarmy pollyannas spouting what Bush calls "a strategy that will lead to victory in Iraq".

Why, didn't you know about all the progress in Iraq? If only the media would report it, they both say again and again. Really! What about all the corruption by the many contractors, all the brutal militias that now often do their work wearing Iraqi soldier or police uniforms, all the bogus reconstruction, paid with billions of American taxpayer money? What about the spreading chaos that Bush has no intention of confronting, as international law requires invading occupiers to remedy. <skip>

One area, however, in Iraq is proceeding on schedule - the building of four massive, permanent super-bases, complete with American suburban amenities such as Pizza Hut, Burger King, miniature golf courses, theaters, swimming pools and even a football field. There is almost a news blackout about Balad Air Base, al-Asad Airbase and others, thought not quite the blockage that the two White House draft-dodgers have placed on reporters trying to cover the return of the fallen soldiers to Dover, Delaware. <skip>

Reality, good citizens, can fairly describe the dictatorial Bush and Cheney as psychiatrically challenged. Send them to the unemployment lines, where Halliburton and Exxon will certainly pick them up.

[babylonsister]

1. Only if Kerry takes his rightful place. He's the smartest man

I can think of to take over.

[radio4progressives]

3. Mark Crispin Miller Handed Kerry A Powerful Weapon to Take His Rightful

Position...

When Mark said, here is all the evidence you need that proves the election was stolen - Kerry accepted the book and thanked him and acknowledged that the election was stolen..





then later denied he ever had that conversation with Miller..

[babylonsister]

4. Have you had a similar conversation with Kerry? You might

get a different scenario of what happened. John Kerry might have disappointed people, but a liar he is not.

[Donna Zen]

2. Are you still awake?

I found an article I thought you might like:

Our Military Empire

Johnson: …it had to be conceptualized. Empires are defined so often as holders of colonies, but analytically, by empire we simply mean the projection of hegemony outward, over other people, using them to serve our interests, regardless of how their interests may be affected.

So what kind of empire is ours? The unit is not the colony, it's the military base. This is not quite as unusual as defenders of the concept of empire often assume. That is to say, we can easily calculate the main military bases of the Roman Empire in the Middle East, and it turns out to be about the same number it takes to garrison the region today. You need about 38 major bases. You can plot them out in Roman times and you can plot them out today.

Personally, I see noone that the DLC or the RNC is pushing that will change this course. In fact on the near horizon I see nobody, except Wes (I say that knowing that you might not agree, but I believe from all I know, that he is our best hope not for cure all just for a chance.) Anyway, because the course will likely remain uncorrected, we are most likely going down. Military empires don't work. As your article states, while we have no money to fix our roads or our schools, we have plenty of spare change for a few mega-bases.

Everyone who knows me, knows I'm ready to get rid of these bastards, so what the article proposes is fine with me. But..but..it will take one house of congress (hopefully the House) to bring this all into the light. Investigations.

[welshTerrier2]

5. awake? actually i'm totally blown away ...

i just finished reading the article you provided the link for ... i'm literally shaken up ... allow me to return the favor: http://www.inmotionmagazine.com/global/cj_int/cj_int1.html

Chalmers Johnson is one scary dude ...

i read his "Sorrows of Empire" ... unbelievable ... I've got to go back and read "Blowback" ...

here's the big question that derives from all this: are most elected Dems every bit as complicit in this policy as the republicans ?????

some on the "far left" say there is no difference between the two major parties when they look at issues like this ... and they see this issue as all encompassing ... all else is pretend ... all else is appeasement ... they see this issue of the ultimate raping of America as so insidious and pervasive that other issues, while obviously meaningful through some other lens, become almost irrelevant ...

so the question is, and I truly don't know the answer, would Democrats reform this system if they had the power to do so? it pains me to realize that in years past they did have that power ... it's hard to see how we can excuse what appears to be their compliance ... and if true, why are we Democrats?

i will tell you i'm wrestling with this in a very "core-rattling" way ... and you couple that with votes for war funding, understanding the real motives of those pushing war, and understanding the death and the failure to provide for the conditions of human decency for the Iraqi people, and you have to be just shaking your head ... i'm just plain shaking ...

if you haven't read the right-hand column on my DU journal page, i have a quote there from the last two chapters of Chalmers Johnson's "Sorrows of Empire" ... i'm afraid he sees the same dark horizon that you and I do ...

[Donna Zen]

7. Answer to the Big Question?

What was the big question? How would I have the answer when all I have to work with are fragments, elegant antique marbles, hard and cold with cat’s eye truths locked within them? But it is the odd fragments of information without a defined shape that make forming absolutes so difficult. Thus, I must speak as a seeker of answers always watchful that when an idea, a piece of new information, comes my way, it finds a fit in my body of knowledge, because it belongs, not because my own preconceptions drive my selection.

A few days ago I mentioned the (new to me) concept of the strategic framework, that formally created guide that sets the agenda for the country’s eventual stance in the world. The recently partial-released Quadrennial Defense Review continues the process of all of these bases, and weapons systems, and dangerously, our foreign policy. (and now our domestic policy too) Once it was decided that we had a temporary window during which we could prepare for a war with China, just as we made decisions about what was then seen as necessary preparations for the Cold War, we would structure our face and posture to fight the Long War. Yes, this follows PNAC’s plan. It would they are writing it. But it also grows from seeds long planted by scores of politicians who return year after year to their seats of power increasing dependent on the main beneficiaries of this constant war footing, the MIC. As General Clark said, the QDR is driven by economics rather than a vision of the best way for our country to fit into the 21st Century. He compared this strategy to a drunk looking for a fight on a Friday night; they always find one. For as Chalmers points out: weapons are now all we really produce.

The parties are not the same. The Republicans will do anything for power including bury their heads in the sand. The Democrats spend most of their time trying to get elected but afraid of a creating a vision or taking a stand. (as an astute unnamed source once said: all the Dems give a shit about is how much money you can raise and whose turn it is.) Neither party puts the country first. I do not refer to the rank and file, or even all of the elected officials from either party, just the majority of elected critters. Some republicans still muse about conservative policies, but very few. And there are clearly Democrats who remember their glorious past including representing the people. There are even some new people on the scene with fresh blood who I hope get in and get out before they lose their souls. But does it ever occur to you that many republicans would love to dump the fundies, or many Democrats who no longer give a hoot about whether or not women have reproductive rights and wish we would shut up? It would be so much easier than routinely having to give the same shallow speech, when one no longer gives a damn.

As always, each politico is a unique individual who motives are also unique. There are a few we can trust. Feingold comes to mind. I think that he honestly loves this country especially its Constitution. He is an honest man. And there are members in the house and few in the senate who would be willing to fight to change the course. Hillary? Oh please. She only wants to get elected and as women has adopted a militant stance. Don’t expect that to change, first because she is partly a believer in the QDR, and party because her style doesn’t allow for expending political will on things like bucking the corporate Pentagon. But in the end, I see nobody, either from a lack of desire or resume, who has both the knowledge and drive to provide the alternate QDR, the one that can change our event horizon.

So here we are: spending our precious future on a dream of military empire which history tells us never works. Stuck in the 19th Century balance of power politics without a way out. Does Clark know all of this? He is my teacher; although I can’t imagine the DLC ever permitting someone like him to rock their election motor-boat. They've decided to go down for the third time. I am not optimistic but I am always hopeful. Besides if we stay on this course, we'll collapse from within before we complete building that last garrison against the evil-doers. Unfortunately, the Constitution is going down with us. As of today, that is my answer.

[omega minimo]

6. Kickety kick for WT2-- a "Good American"

:patriot: